54 



COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS 



lady whose acquaintance we have made further up the 

 road, to wit, Frances, Countess of Hertford, afterwards 

 Duchess of Somerset, she who at Ritchings entertained 

 Thomson till she found that he preferred to entertain 

 himself; though some say that it was in this very castle 



The Castle Inn, now part of Marlborough College. 



that the august patroness to whom " Spring " was dedi- 

 cated, discovered the horrid truth that her poet was, 

 alas ! little better than a drunkard. And it was in her 

 noble lord's society that Eusebia discoverd her bard 

 carousing — that was the pity of it — no doubt in one of 

 Eusebia's grottos, which, in company with cascades, 



