The Lodge House (excerpt)

On a heath stood a farm house as lone as coud be
Let em look where they woud nothing else coud they see
But here an odd furze bush & there an odd tree
            Green corn field & fallow land brown
More lonsomly too in a hollow it lay
The hermit like tennants no neighbours had they
To pop in & chat a few hours of the day
            Twas two mile or more from a town

The farmer was wealthy as many coud tell
He managd wi care & he ploughd his land well

& card not for living in such a lone cell
            If he coud get crops to his will
Of servants for labour he kept a good clan
Stiff chaps five or six & a sturdy head man
A house keeping maid & a under wench nan
            Who had in a dairy good skill

Who lives at a lodge but gen dangers prepard
So wealthy & lonly he kept a good guard
& four mettle bull dogs turnd loose in his yard
            & guns ready chargd for alarms
Twas nothing unlikley for rogues coming here
So noted for hurded up wealth as he were
Tho towns round about him for miles far & neer
            Had heard of his dogs & his arms

Tho nothing to scare em as yet hadnt been
Of any one tempting down right to get in
But folks lunging round it at night time was seen
            Which left em suspisions of fear
& maids often sed when the rest were gone church
That shagger-down fellows theyve seen on the lurch
That tryd at the front door & then at the porch
            & begd in excuse bread or beer

(lines 1-32)

Cottage Tales

Carcanet Press (1993)
Robinson, Powell & Dawson