A ling’ring, but reforming punishment: 
Home then he walked, and found his anger rise
When fire and rushlight met his troubled eyes;
But these extinguish’d, and his prayer address’d
To Heaven in hope, he calmly sank to rest. 
   His seventieth year was pass’d and then was seen
A building rising on the northern green;
There was no blinding all his neighbours’ eyes,
Or surely no one would have seen it rise: 
Twelve rooms contiguous stood, and six were near,
There men were placed, and sober matrons here: 
There were behind small useful gardens made,
Benches before, and trees to give them shade;
In the first room were seen above, below,
Some marks of taste, a few attempts at show. 
The founder’s picture and his arms were there
(Not till he left us), and an elbow’d chair;
There, ’mid these signs of his superior place,
Sat the mild ruler of this humble race. 
   Within the row are men who strove in vain,
Through years of trouble, wealth and ease to gain;
Less must they have than an appointed sum,
And freemen been, or hither must not come;
They should be decent, and command respect,
(Though needing fortune), whom these doors protect,
And should for thirty dismal years have tried
For peace unfelt and competence denied. 
   Strange! that o’er men thus train’d in sorrow’s school,
Power must be held, and they must live by rule;
Infirm, corrected by misfortunes, old,
Their habits settled and their passions cold;
Of health, wealth, power, and worldly cares bereft,
Still must they not at liberty be left;
There must be one to rule them, to restrain
And guide the movements of his erring train. 
   If then control imperious, check severe,
Be needed where such reverend men appear;
To what would youth, without such checks, aspire,
Free the wild wish, uncurb’d the strong desire? 
And where (in college or in camp) they found
The heart ungovern’d and the hand unbound? 
   His house endow’d, the generous man resign’d
All power to rule, nay power of choice declined;
He and the female saint survived to view
Their work complete, and bade the world adieu! 
   Six are the Guardians of this happy seat,
And one presides when they on business meet;
As each expires, the five a brother choose;
Nor would Sir Denys Brand the charge refuse;
True, ’twas beneath him, “but to do men good
Was motive never by his heart withstood:” 
He too is gone, and they again must strive
To find a man in whom his gifts survive. 
Now, in the various records of the dead,
Thy worth, Sir Denys, shall be weigh’d and read;
There we the glory of thy house shall trace,
With each alliance of thy noble race. 
   Yes! here we have him!—­“Came in William’s reign,
The Norman Brand; the blood without a stain;
From the fierce Dane and ruder Saxon clear,
Pict, Irish, Scot, or Cambrian mountaineer: