Nor played upon the floore,—
Goddes’ was the joy; a lyttel boy
Ben in the way no more!”
Eugene Field, A Little Book of Western Verse
(1890).
Lyttelton, addressed by Thompson in “Spring,” was Lord George Lyttelton, of Hagley Park, Worcestershire, who procured for the poet a pension of £100 a year. He was a poet and historian (1709-1773).
O Lyttelton ... from these distracted, oft
You wander thro’ the philosophic world; ...
And oft, conducted by historic truth,
You tread the long extent of backward time; ...