Yes—it was so; and always on this day

He kept a sort of sacred jubilee.

It seems, by record, that George Hollybrand was born

Some fifty years ago at Merrythorn,

Which place (’tis said, by those who’ve sojourn’d there)

Had gain’d repute for its salubrious air;

And George’s father—Michael Hollybrand,

Own’d a small territ’ry of pasture-land;

But owing to some law-suit he sustained—

Worse fortune for his son—was almost ruined: