Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/341

315 Had earned for him sure welcome, and the rights

Of a prized Visitant, in the jolly hall

Of country Squire; or at the statelier board

Of Duke or Earl, from scenes of courtly pomp

Withdrawn,—to while away the summer hours

In condescension among rural guests.

With these high Comrades he had revelled long,

Had frolicked many a year; a simple Clerk

By hopes of coming patronage beguiled

And vexed, until the weary heart grew sick.

And so, abandoning each higher aim

And all his shewy Friends, at length he turned

For a life's stay, though slender yet assured,

To this remote and humble Chapelry;

Which had been offered to his doubtful choice

By an unthought of Patron. Bleak and bare

They found the Cottage, their allotted home:

Naked without and rude within; a spot

With which the scantily-provided Cure

Not long had been endowed: and far remote

The Chapel stood, divided from that House

By an unpeopled tract of mountain waste.