He leant his back against a post, And there were water-cresses growing, A soldier with his knapsack on, But Half an hour's walk for a young man, The soldier took his knapsack off, And out his bread and cheese he took, Old friend! in faith, the soldier says, My shoulders have been sorely prest, In such a sweltering day as this, The old man laugh'd and moved-I wish But this may help a man at need! That ever brought it there. There's a poor girl lies buried here The earth upon her corpse is prest, The soldier had but just leant back, God rest her! she is still enough I have past by about that hour When men are not most brave; It did not make my heart to fail, And I have heard the nightingale Sing sweetly on her grave. I have past by about that hour There's one who like a Christian lies There's one who in the churchyard lies He lies in consecrated ground, Didst see a house below the hill, Which the winds and the rains destroy? "Twas then a farm where he did dwell, And I remember it full well When I was a growing boy. And she was a poor parish girl The man he was a wicked man, Rage made his cheek grow deadly white, The man was bad, the mother worse, "Twould make your hair to stand on end The things that were told of them! Didst see an out-house, standing by? It was a stable then, but now The poor girl she had served with them It is a wild and lonesome place, Should one meet a murderer there alone And there were strange reports about; That she by her own hand had died, This was the very place he chose, Just where these four roads met, They carried her upon a board, In the clothes in which she died; I think they could not have been closed I never saw so dreadful a sight, They laid her here where four roads meet, The earth upon her corpse was prest, THE WELL OF ST. KEYNE. I know not whether it be worth reporting, that there is in Cornwall, near the parish of St. Neots, a well arched over with the robes of four kinds of trees, withy, oak, elm, and ash, dedicated to St. Keyne. The reported virtue of the water is this, that whether husband or wife come first to drink thereof, they get the mastery thereby.-Fuller. A WELL there is in the west-country, An oak and an elm tree stand beside, A traveller came to the well of St. Keyne; For from cock-crow he had been travelling He drank of the water so cool and clear, Under the willow tree. There came a man from the neighbouring town On the well-side he rested it, Now art thou a bachelor, stranger ? quoth he, For an if thou hast a wife, The happiest draught thou hast drank this day That ever thou didst in thy life. Or has your good woman, if one you have, For an if she have, I'll venture my life She has drank of the well of St. Keyne. I have left a good woman who never was here, The stranger he made reply; But that my draught should be better for that, I pray you answer me why. St. Keyne, quoth the countryman, many a time And before the angel summoned her If the husband of this gifted well |