...has made; But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, When once destroyed, can never be supplied, A time there was, ere England's griefs began. When...labour spread her wholesome store, Just gave what life required, but gave no more: 60 His best companions, innocence and health; And his best riches, ignorance...

...has made; But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, When once destroy'd can never be supply *d. A time there was, e're England's griefs began, When every rood of ground maintain'd its man; For him light labour spread her wholesome store, Just gave what life requir'd but...

...wistful recollection of a vanished order, as witness this couplet from Goldsmith's Deserted Village: "A time there was, ere England's griefs began / When every rood of ground maintained its man." 56 The glorious "was" inevitably yields to a "now" of decadence and falling away: "But now the sounds...

...Village" (1770), also bemoaned the urbanization of England and similarly posited a rural Golden Age: A time there was 'ere England's griefs began, When every rood of land maintained its man. . . But times are altered; trade's unfeeling train Usurp the land and dispossess...

...feet of "trade": 111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay A time there was, ere England's griefs began, When...labour spread her wholesome store, Just gave what life required, but gave no more: His best companions, innocence and health; And his best riches, ignorance...

...had made; But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, When once destroyed, can never be supplied. A time there was ere England's griefs began, When...Labour spread her wholesome store, Just gave what life required, but gave no more: His best companions, innocence and health; And his best riches, ignorance...

...decay . . . But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, When once destroyed, can never be supplied. A time there was, ere England's griefs began, When...labour spread her wholesome store, Just gave what life required, but gave no more . . . But times are altered; trade's unfeeling train Usurp the land and...

...'Don't sing, Mummy/ they implored. Now, in a moment of joyous liberation, she gave it all she had got: 'When every rood of ground maintained its man; For...labour spread her wholesome store, Just gave what life required, and gave no more: His blest companions, innocence and health; And his best riches, ignorance...

...charming, but unconvincing nostalgia. But it was what he went on to say which gives the game away. A time there was, ere England's griefs began, When...labour spread her wholesome store, Just gave what life required, but gave no more: His blest companions, innocence and health; And his best riches, ignorance...

...breath has made; But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, When once destroyed can never be supplied. A time there was, ere England's griefs began, When...labour spread her wholesome store, Just gave what life required, but gave no more: His best companions, innocence and health; And his best riches, ignorance...