That sternly decreed they've no right

    To innocent pleasure like this.

                   19

  Tho' the Youth of to-day must deplore—

    The rough mounds that now sadden the scene,

  The vain stretch of Misanthropy's Power,

    The Enclosure of Honington Green.

  Yet when not a green turf is left free,

    When not one odd nook is left wild,

  Will the Children of Honington be

    Less blest than when I was a Child?

                   20

  No! ... Childhood shall find the scene fair,

    Then here let me cease my complaint;

  Still shall Health be inhal'd with the Air,

    Which at Honington cannot be taint:

  And tho' Age may still talk of the Green,

    Of the Heath, and free Commons of yore,

  Youth shall joy in the new-fangled scene,

    And boast of that change we deplore.

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