intervals of time, revisit places they have had much pleasure in.  It is unnecessary to add, the fact was as mentioned in the poem; and I have, after an interval of forty-five years, the image of the old man as fresh before my eyes as if I had seen him yesterday.  The expression when the hounds were out, ’I dearly love their voice,’ was word for word from his own lips.—­I.  F.]

This poem was classed among those of “Sentiment and Reflection.”—­Ed.

* * * * *

THE POEM

In the sweet shire of Cardigan, Not far from pleasant Ivor-hall, An old Man dwells, a little man,—­ ’Tis said [1] he once was tall. [2] Full five-and-thirty [3] years he lived 5 A running huntsman merry; And still the centre of his cheek Is red as a ripe cherry. [4]

  No man like him the horn could sound,
  And hill and valley rang with glee:  10
  When Echo bandied, round and round,
  The halloo of Simon Lee. 
  In those proud days, he little cared
  For husbandry or tillage;
  To blither tasks did Simon rouse 15
  The sleepers of the village. [5]

  He all the country could outrun,
  Could leave both man and horse behind;
  And often, ere the chase [6] was done,
  He reeled, and was stone blind. 20
  And still there’s something in the world
  At which his heart rejoices;
  For when the chiming hounds are out,
  He dearly loves their voices!

  But, oh the heavy change! [A]—­bereft 25
  Of health, strength, friends, and kindred, see! [7]
  Old Simon to the world is left
  In liveried poverty. 
  His Master’s dead,—­and no one now
  Dwells in the Hall of Ivor; 30
  Men, dogs, and horses, all are dead;
  He is the sole survivor. [8]

  And [9] he is lean and he is sick;
  His body, dwindled and awry,
  Rests upon ankles swoln and thick; 35
  His legs are thin and dry. 
  One prop he has, and only one,
  His wife, an aged woman,
  Lives with him, near the waterfall,
  Upon the village Common. [10] 40

  Beside their moss-grown hut of clay,
  Not twenty paces from the door,
  A scrap of land they have, but they
  Are poorest of the poor. 
  This scrap of land he from the heath 45
  Enclosed when he was stronger;
  But what to them avails the land
  Which he can till no longer? [11]

  Oft, working by her Husband’s side,
  Ruth does what Simon cannot do; 50
  For she, with scanty cause for pride, [12]
  Is stouter of the two. 
  And, though you with your utmost skill
  From labour could not wean them,
  ’Tis little, very little—­all 55
  That they can do between them. [13]