Throw physic to the dogs, I’ll none of it.
Macbeth.
His promises are, as he then was, mighty;
And his performance, as he now is, nothing.
Henry
VIII.
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Gwyn was a farmer, whom the farmers all,
Who dwelt around, “the Gentleman” would
call;
Whether in pure humility or pride,
They only knew, and they would not decide.
Far different he from that dull
plodding tribe
Whom it was his amusement to describe;
Creatures no more enliven’d than a clod,
But treading still as their dull fathers trod;
Who lived in times when not a man had seen
Corn sown by drill, or thresh’d by a machine!
He was of those whose skill assigns the prize
For creatures fed in pens, and stalls, and sties;
And who, in places where improvers meet,
To fill the land with fatness, had a seat;
Who in large mansions live like petty kings,
And speak of farms but as amusing things;
Who plans encourage, and who journals keep,
And talk with lords about a breed of sheep.
Two are the species in this genus
known;
One, who is rich in his profession grown,
Who yearly finds his ample stores increase,
From fortune’s favours and a favouring lease;
Who rides his hunter, who his house adorns;
Who drinks his wine, and his disbursements scorns;
Who freely lives, and loves to show he can, —
This is the Farmer made the Gentleman.
The second species from the world
is sent,
Tired with its strife, or with his wealth content;
In books and men beyond the former read
To farming solely by a passion led,
Or by a fashion; curious in his land;
Now planning much, now changing what he plann’d;
Pleased by each trial, not by failures vex’d,
And ever certain to succeed the next;
Quick to resolve, and easy to persuade, —
This is the Gentleman, a farmer made.
Gwyn was of these; he from the world
withdrew
Early in life, his reasons known to few;
Some disappointments said, some pure good sense,
The love of land, the press of indolence;
His fortune known, and coming to retire,
If not a Farmer, men had call’d him ’Squire.
Forty and five his years, no child
or wife
Cross’d the still tenour of his chosen life;
Much land he purchased, planted far around,
And let some portions of superfluous ground
To farmers near him, not displeased to say
“My tenants,” nor “our worthy landlord,”
they.
Fix’d in his farm, he soon
display’d his skill
In small-boned lambs, the horse-hoe, and the drill;
From these he rose to themes of nobler kind,
And show’d the riches of a fertile mind;
To all around their visits he repaid
And thus his mansion and himself display’d.
His rooms were stately, rather fine than neat,
And guests politely call’d his house a Seat;
At much expense was each apartment graced,