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TO THE EARL OF ASHBURNHAM .
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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55

TO THE EARL OF ASHBURNHAM .

Most noble Lord, in whose thrice-ancient name
The flow'r of perfect faith, and loyalty
Still blossoms, that therein your glorious fame,
Accepted of all time, shall never die;
But that pure gift, that to his progeny
Was left by Bertram in King Harold's days,
And after seen in that late tragedy,
Which did the Martyr from this life erase,
Continues of your house the matchless praise;
Right worthily, my Lord, to you I bring
These fair first-fruits of my heroic lays,
Sith of your ancestors I mean to sing,
And in lamenting Verse to speak their fate,
Who perish'd for “the King and the Estate .”
 

The late lamented Earl; whose Ancestors were of exalted Nobility in the time of King Harold.

The Motto of the Earls of Ashburnham: “Le Roy et l'Estat.”