“The concave hall, ’mongst sources never view’d,

Nor heard the goddesses, in merry mood,

At their choice viands sing bold Robin Hood:†

Whose tomb at Kirkley’s nunnery display’d,

A false, hard-hearted, irreligious maid,

Who bled, and to cold death that earl betray’d.

But fame still lasts, while country folks display

His limpid fountain, and loud-surging bay.”


* He died in 1778, aged 87.