—'Whence do they come? and with what errand charged?

'Belong they to the fortune-telling tribe

'Who pitch their tents under the green-wood tree?

'Or Strollers are they,[637] furnished to enact

'Fair Rosamond,[IH] and the Children of the Wood,[II]

'And, by that whiskered tabby's aid, set forth

'The lucky venture of sage Whittington,[IJ]

'When the next village hears the show announced

'By blast of trumpet?' Plenteous was the growth

Of such conjectures, overheard, or seen