8o THE EXETER ROAD 



At length they were immortalised by Hood, the 

 elder, in a quite serious poem : — 



Where erst two haughty maidens used to be, 



In pride of phime, where plumy Death hath trod. 

 Trailing their gorgeous velvet wantonly, 



Most unmeet pall, over the holy sod ; 

 There, gentle stranger, thou may'st only see 



Two sombre peacocks. Age, with sapient nod. 

 Marking the spot, still tarries to declare 



How once they lived, and wherefore they are there. 



Alas ! that breathing vanity should go 



Where pride is buried ; like its very ghost, 

 Unrisen from the naked bones below. 



In novel flesh, clad in the silent boast 

 Of gaudy silk that flutters to and fro, 



Shedding its chilling superstition most 

 On young and ignorant natures as is wont 



To haunt the peaceful churchyard of Bedfont ! 



If anv one can unravel the sense from the tano-led 

 lines of the second verse, — as obscure as some of 

 Browning's poetry — let him account himself clever. 



The ' Black Dog,' once the halting-place of the long- 

 extinct ' Driving Club,' of which the late Duke of 

 Beaufort was a member, has recently been demolished. 

 A lar2;e villa stands on the site of it, at the corner of 

 the Green, as the village is left behind. 



The flattest of Hat, and among the straightest of 

 straight, roads is this which runs from East Bedfont 

 into Staines. That loyal bard, John Taylor, the 

 ' Water Poet,' was along this route on his way to the 

 Isle of Wio-ht in 1647. He started from the ' Rose,' 



