.
But little modified by time,
beyond a sea of rare constraint
and far removed from shore and heather,
lay the slopes and wooded hills
where labourers toiled in distant fields
through sleet and snow and sun and rain.
Set deep within this vista’s folds
a simple house of slate and stone,
declared by upright pointing stack
where curling smoke reached out
and punctuated hedge and vale
to touch a sheeted sky.
His home beneath the mossy slate,
blind circumstances led him there,
In congregations high esteem
a man of opaque piety
who never trod the stony path
which leads to fortunes door.