circa 1778: For the CUMBERLAND PACQUET The following lines were written by a Youth who came from America to England, for Education: and now detained on Account of the present disturbances. Oh! Tempora - Oh! Mores! LONG have I labour'd big with anxious Care, Rack'd by two passions, Hope and dull Despair; Far from my Kindred and my native Home, Doom'd a sad Exile, in strange Lands to roam: Not the soft language of a feeling Friend, To ease my sorrows one sad sigh to lend; Nought but fell rumours of a horrid War, Of slaughter'd Thousands, and of civil Jar; Of bleeding Heroes, and of death-bed Groans, The Shrieks of Orphans, and the Widows Moans ; Of Fathers weltering in their Children's Gore; All is Distraction and confus'd Uproar! Such Ills, alas ! - what pious Soul can name, And not be struck with Dread and inward Shame! That Men, like Beasts, should on each other prey, In search of Honours and imperial Sway; A Heap of Bubbles, that are blown away! O thou Almighty! hear a Suppliant's Pray'r, And place a Period to a Load of Care; Let Peace and Plenty now, once more abound, The Bow be broke, the Trumpet cease to sound . St. Bees [i] Actual copy of newspaper; Kendal Record Office, Reveley folder. Samuel Reveley, the Vicar of Crosby Ravensworth, Westmorland, emigrated to America in 1765 as a youth with his family. In 1775 he was sent back to England to attend St. Bees. The family hadn't dreamed that the next year the American Revolution would keep Samuel from returning home to Woodend. In 1778, this poem appeared in the Cumberland Pacquet. The words "Mr Reveley" were added in pen and ink to the copy in the Reveley folder.