Our Hero’s age was threescore years and five,
When he exclaim’d, “Why longer should I strive?
Why more amass, who never must behold
A young John Dighton to make glad the old?”
(The sons he had to early graves were gone,
And girls were burdens to the mind of John.)
“Had I a boy, he would our name sustain,
That now to nothing must return again;
But what are all my profits, credit, trade,
And parish honours? - folly and parade.”