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LEWESDON HILL.
Where, from the busy world withdrawn, he lived
To generous Virtue, and the holy love
Of Liberty, a dedicated spirit:
And left his ashes there; still honouring
Thy fields, with title given of patriot names,
But more with his untitled sepulchre.
That envious ridge conceals thee from my sight;
Which, passing o'er thy place north-east, looks on
To Sherburne's ancient towers and rich domains,
The noble Digby's mansion; where he dwells
Inviolate, and fearless of thy curse,
War-glutted [1]Osmund, superstitious Lord!
To generous Virtue, and the holy love
Of Liberty, a dedicated spirit:
And left his ashes there; still honouring
Thy fields, with title given of patriot names,
But more with his untitled sepulchre.
That envious ridge conceals thee from my sight;
Which, passing o'er thy place north-east, looks on
To Sherburne's ancient towers and rich domains,
The noble Digby's mansion; where he dwells
Inviolate, and fearless of thy curse,
War-glutted [1]Osmund, superstitious Lord!
- ↑ Of the strange curse belonging to Shireburne-Castle. From a MS. of the late Bishop of Ely (Bp John More) now in the Royal Library at Cambridge.
'Osmund a Norman knight (who had served William Duke of Normandy from his youth, in all his wars against the French king, and the Duke's (William's) subjects, with much valour and discretion) for all his faithful service (when his Master had by conquest obteyned the crown of England) was rewarded with many great gifts; among the which was the Earldome of Dorsett, and the gift of many other Possessions, whereof the Castle and Baronie of Sherburne were parcell. But Osmund, in the declyninge of his age, calling to mynde the great effusion of blood, which, from
grave ten feet deep; and that the field should be immediately ploughed over, that no trace of his burial place might remain.' Memoirs of Thomas Hollis, Esq. vol. I. p. 481.
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