The verse he quoted to Thomas Warton as his favourite, from the translation of Pope's Messiah, Vallis aromaticas fundit Saronica nubes, evinces that he could be pleased without elegance in a mode of composition, of which elegance is the chief recommendation.

De loco et dispositione vallis infaustæ.

Est illic in alpibus vallis infausta, quatuor fermè leucarum: longitudo vallis, quasi ad quatuor milliaria Lombardica, appellata vallis incantationis, seu periculosa, seu propiùs daemoniosa: intrà quam diebus ac noctibus resonant boatus et tumultus tonitruorum, tempestatum, clamorum, et stridorum, diuersique generis sonituum terribilium, quos illic exercet multitudo spirituum malignorum.

Est illic in alpibus vallis infausta, quatuor fermè leucarum: longitudo vallis, quasi ad quatuor milliaria Lombardica, appellata vallis incantationis, seu periculosa, seu propiùs daemoniosa: intrà quam diebus ac noctibus resonant boatus et tumultus tonitruorum, tempestatum, clamorum, et stridorum, diuersique generis sonituum terribilium, quos illic exercet multitudo spirituum malignorum.

Est illic in alpibus vallis infausta, quatuor fermè leucarum: longitudo vallis, quasi ad quatuor milliaria Lombardica, appellata vallis incantationis, seu periculosa, seu propiùs daemoniosa: intrà quam diebus ac noctibus resonant boatus et tumultus tonitruorum, tempestatum, clamorum, et stridorum, diuersique generis sonituum terribilium, quos illic exercet multitudo spirituum malignorum.

Propè ad vallis medium sub vna rupium, apparet omni tempore visibiliter integrum ac maximum caput daemonis vsque ad humeros tantùm, cuius speciem præ horrore nullus pleno intuitu humanus audet diu oculus sustinere: nam respicientes contrà aspicit truculentèr, agitans oculos minacitèr, tanquam ex palpebris eiecturus (quæ et scintillant) flammas in altum.

Est autem longitudo illius vallis quasi ad quatuor milliaria Lombardica, in qua

Ad illam faciem non audebam accedere, nisi ad distantiam octo passuum: posteà iui ad caput vallis, et ascendi super montem arenosum, in quo vndique circumspiciens, nihil videbam, nisi instrumenta musicalia, quæ audiebam fortitèr pulsare.

Et certè dum per tanta tormenta, quasi exhaustis totis viribus, iam propè medium locum vallis erat ventum, accidit repentè, sub vnico instanti temporis, quibusdam nostrum expalmatio ita dura, vt omnes paritèr collisi, et prostrati iaceremus in extasi per vnam vul duas forsitan horas.

Per quartam autem leucam (ductrice gratia) leuiùs transeuntes, sustinuimus tamen sub pedibus hominum cadauera mortuorum, propè vallis exitum rerum tentamina preciosarum.

Haec vallis habet longitudinem septem, vel octo milliarium ad plus, in quam si quis intrat, moritur, et nunquam viuus potest transire per medium illius vallis, et ideò omnes de contrata declinant à latere:

Haec vallis habet longitudinem septem, vel octo milliarium ad plus, in quam si quis intrat, moritur, et nunquam viuus potest transire per medium illius vallis, et ideò omnes de contrata declinant à latere:

accedere capiti ausus fui: Iui autem fugiens ad aliud caput vallis, et super vnum monticulum arenosum ascendi, in quo vndique circumspiciens nihil vidi nisi cytharas illas, quas per se (vt mihi videbatur)

Vallis amoenissima e duobus montibus composita niveis.

Lebanon gaudentia culmina tollit; En! summo exultant nutantes vertice sylvae: Mittit aromaticas vallis Saronica nubes, Et juga Carmeli recreant fragrantia coelum.

Horruit implexo qua vallis sente, figurae Surgit amans abies teretis, buxique sequaces Artificis frondent dextrae; palmisque rubeta Aspera, odoratae cedunt mala gramiua myrto.

The founder of the sanctuary was a hermit, whose contemplative spirit led him to this savage and uninhabited valley, whose name, in the early Christian ages, was Vallis tenebrosa, but in which Nature had fashioned numerous caverns, more or less tempting to an anchorite.

Saint Bernard of the Alps died in 1008, while Saint Bernard the reformer was born in 1093, dying sixty years later as abbot of Clara vallis or Clairvaux, on the bank of the Aube in northern France.

It was at this Abbey of the Bright Vale, or Clara vallis, that Archbishop Maelmaedog resigned his spirit to heaven, five years before the death of the younger Saint Bernard, then abbot there.

One eclogue, finally, the Valle tenebrosa (Vallis Opaca), which appears to owe something to Dante's description of hell, is probably historical in its intention, but the gloss explains obscurum per obscurius, and we can only suppose that the author intended that the inner sense should remain a mystery.

Elm, or Great Elm, a village 3 m. S.W. from Frome, perched on the edge of a vale of quite romantic picturesqueness (see Vallis).

Interesting features are (1) piscinas above the rood and in the S. aisle, (2) a memento mori in the Lady Chapel (said to be a Leversedge of Vallis), (3) brass (1506) on tower wall.

Vallis, 1 m. N.W. from Fromea prettily-wooded bottom, through which flows a stream pleasantly margined by a strip of pasture.

On the west is one of the entrances to Vallis, a grassy valley bordered by limestone rocks, and trees and copse, with a trout-stream winding through it.

Vallis opened into several other vales, and on the heights above were the picturesque villages of Elm and Skells, and the ruined nunnery and massive old castle, the old seat of Delameres, renowned for a defence in the Cromwellian wars.