All white, a virgin-saint, she sought the skies: 
  For marriage, though it sullies not, it dyes. 20
  High though her wit, yet humble was her mind: 
  As if she could not, or she would not find
  How much her worth transcended all her kind. 
  Yet she had learn’d so much of heaven below,
  That, when arrived, she scarce had more to know: 
  But only to refresh the former hint,
  And read her Maker in a fairer print. 
  So pious, as she had no time to spare
  For human thoughts, but was confined to prayer. 
  Yet in such charities she pass’d the day, 30
  ’Twas wondrous how she found an hour to pray. 
  A soul so calm, it knew not ebbs or flows,
  Which passion could but curl, not discompose. 
  A female softness, with a manly mind: 
  A daughter duteous, and a sister kind: 
  In sickness patient, and in death resign’d.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 39:  This Lady is interred in the Abbey-church.  Her name was Mary Frampton.  She died in 1698.]

* * * * *

XIII.

EPITAPH ON MRS MARGARET PASTON, OF BURNINGHAM IN NORFOLK.

So fair, so young, so innocent, so sweet,
So ripe a judgment, and so rare a wit,
Require at least an age in one to meet. 
In her they met; but long they could not stay,
’Twas gold too fine to mix without allay. 
Heaven’s image was in her so well express’d,
Her very sight upbraided all the rest;
Too justly ravish’d from an age like this,
Now she is gone, the world is of a piece.

* * * * *

XIV.

ON THE MONUMENT OF THE MARQUIS OF WINCHESTER.[40]

He who in impious times undaunted stood,
And ’midst rebellion durst be just and good;
Whose arms asserted, and whose sufferings more
Confirm’d the cause for which he sought before,
Rests here, rewarded by an heavenly prince,
For what his earthly could not recompense. 
Pray, reader, that such times no more appear: 
Or, if they happen, learn true honour here. 
Ask of this age’s faith and loyalty,
Which, to preserve them, Heaven confined in thee. 
Few subjects could a king like thine deserve;
And fewer such a king so well could serve. 
Blest king, blest subject, whose exalted state
By sufferings rose, and gave the law to fate! 
Such souls are rare, but mighty patterns given
To earth, and meant for ornaments to heaven.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 40:  Winchester, a staunch royalist, besieged two years in his castle of Basing, died in 1674.]