Stay, let me pledge, 'tis my last earthly liquor,
When I am dead you'll bind my grave with wicker.
In the Shepherd's Week, the same custom is alluded to, and the cause explained:—
With wicker rods we fenced her tomb around,
To ward, from man and beast, the hallowed ground,
Lest her new grave the parson's cattle raze,
For both his horse and cow the church-yard graze.
Fifth Pastoral.
EARL RICHARD.
NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED.