Let others sing the wild career

Of Turpin, Gilpin, Paul Revere.

A gentler pace is mine. But hear!

The raindrops fell, splash! thud! splash! thud!

Till half the country-side was flood,

And Ringmer was a waste of mud.

The sleepy Ouse had grown a sea,

Where here and there a drowning tree

Cast up its arms beseechingly;

And cattle that in fairer days