Things New and Old Page

This is the tenth item from Robert Dymond's book: "Things New and Old Concerning the Parish of Widecombe-in-the-Moor and its Neighbourhood" (1876)

From the Visitors’ Book at T. French’s Cottage.

A maiden fair from the West came down,

Clad in a dress of the brightest brown ;

’Twas trimmed all o’er with a silv'ry frill,

Spangled with white, like a rippling rill.

If you gazéd into her crystal eye,

With a liquid glance she passed you by,

Bounding and dancing with skippings fleet,

Swift as a Dart her lover to meet.

A dashing youth from the East drew nigh,

Dark grey was his suit, bright brown was his eye ;

His buttons were silver, sparkling bright,

The lining silk, of a glossy white.

If stared at long, or gazed on by chance,

’Twas ever the same unflinching glance;

With a leaping, bounding, merry Dart,

He tried to meet but his own sweetheart.

It was here they met one wintry morn,

Never again were their lives forlorn ;

No priest was required to make them one,

For the date of their wedding was known to none ;

The stream of their lives merrily sped,

Together they roamed where Nature led;

Their will was one, their purpose alone,

In the Sea of Love, to lose their own.

J. C.