(Had come to Rollingate erst as a page;)

O’er fifty years, it was the old man’s boast,

He had been guardian of th’ important post:

But then, besides, he rode about th’ estate,—

A sort of bailiff over Rollingate,

And superintendent of the flocks and herds,

The deer, the swine, and the domestic birds,—

He made arrangements for the animal sale

Of surplus cattle; oak, and ashen, pale;

The over-crowding firs and elms and pines;