The Hemlock Stone poem

The Hemlock Stone

The photo was found in an old book unrelated to this poem, and there are no clues to its copyright holder

By Robert Millhouse

Robert Millhouse was a local poet (1788-1839), and one of his works was recorded by John Potter Briscoe in the book "Bypaths of Nottinghamshire History".  It is presumably about The Hemlock Stone.

“Thou mouldering relic of forgotten time!
Well I remember how in youth I came
And grav'd yon rude initials of my name,
Unwistful then, that I, in manhood's prime,
Should be an anxious candidate for fame:
Long hast thou borne the onsets of the storm,
Like speechless horror frowning in dismay;
But age thy latest vestige shall deform,
And waste thy moss-grown chronicles away;
Yet, let not avarice hasten on thy fall
But leave thy destiny to nature's power;
So may the stripling shelter from the shower,
And ponder o'er the records on thy wall,
Or mount thy top to seize the hanging flower."