42 WILLIAM CUMING, M.E). 



and the arrival of the Misses Trenchard, of Wolverton (to whom 

 the whole effusion is dedicated), drew from the poet a flattering, 

 but rather invidious, compliment : 



So wheu the Sun exerts its Pow'r 

 The Lesser Stars are seen no more. 



These ladies were (I conjecture) Henrietta and Mary Trenchard, 

 children of Mary, daughter and heiress of Colonel Thomas 

 Trenchard, of Wolverton, and George, son and heir of Sir John 

 Trenchard, of Bloxworth. The opening lines of the poem recall 

 the past : 



While you my Fair ! resorted here 



Each Heart was gay and debonair ; 



Gladness appear' d in every Face 



And Beaux and Belles adorn'd the Place ; 



All Nature smil'd upon our View, 



Joy, Love, and Beauty came with you : 



The Girls (for) Plays, Balls, Cloaths, & pinners. 



Were glad to give up half their dinners ; 



The Men (strange change you brought about) 



Left their October and their Gout. 



When the poet wrote, the bewitching Trenchards were far away, 



for not only do " these Walks" (doubtless the pleasant ramparts 



so familiar to us) 



Their Use and Duty know no more ; 



but 



Despoil'd of Arms the God of Love 

 With Dryads sigh(s) in Wolverton Grove. 



Another loss to society is bewailed in a series of twenty four- 

 lined stanzas, entitled "The doleful Lamentation of the Single 

 Women of Dorchester on the Departure of Colonel Pitt — f™ a 

 Lady to Her Friend in Town — which may be said or sung to the 

 Tune of the Broom or of any other mournful Tune." The 

 subject of these pathetic strains was George Pitt (afterwards 

 Lord Rivers), Colonel of the Dorset Militia from its first 

 embodiment in 1757. Though elderly at the date of the poem, 

 he was handsome and active; his "grace" and "elegance of 



