15 



At eve we returned home to Forsten again. 

 Where dwells hospitality, truth, and Jack Fane. 

 We talked o'er the chase, and we toasted the health 

 Of the man who ne'er varies for places or wealth. 

 " Charles Blair* baulked a leap," says Phelips ; " 'twas 



odd;" 

 " 'Twas shameful," cried Jones, " by the great living God." 

 Says Meggs, "I halJooed, get on, tho' you fall. 

 Or I'll leap over you, your blind stone horse and all." 



To the drawing room next, for Augusta,! the fair, 



And VVoodford, the merriest of damsels, were there ; 



Ned Phelips' sister, Maria, his wife, 



And the girl Ben Simnes had just taken for life. 



No scandal or folly their converse dispense. 



But wit with good humour, and mirth with good sense. 



As Pallas and Dian the hunters befriend, 



The muses and graces these ladies attend. 



Our evening, devoted to freedom and sport, 

 All party affairs we consigned to the court. 

 The ladies, the fairest Britannia can boast. 

 Were each in their turn proclaimed as a toast ; 

 And thus we concluded the day and the night 

 Jn jollity, sport, and in social delight. 

 And as Phoebus befriended our earlier roam, 

 80 Luna took care to conduct us safe home, t 



•Charles Blair afterwards married Lady Mary Fane, and, with "Jones," 

 was guardian to John, loth Earl of Westmoreland. 



t Mrs. John Fane, daughter of Lord Albemarle Bertie. 



tForsten, "where dwelt hospitality, truth, and Jack Fane," is three 

 miles north of Dorchester. From Grange Wood, where they "unkennelled" 

 their fox, to Lulworth Shore, where they killed him, is twenty and a half miles, 

 as the crow flies. 



