A rural dean, I said, he was, at least,
Canon perhaps; at many a good man’s feast
A guest had been, amongst the choicest there.
Manly his voice and manly was his air:
At the first sight you felt he had not known
The things pertaining to his cloth alone.
Chairman of Quarter Sessions had he been?
Serious and calm, ’twas plain he much had seen,
Had miscellaneous large experience had
Of human acts, good, half and half, and bad.