Every evening, working horses
came to wade through cooling water;
now the pond is just for show —
Horses come, horses go.
John Bonham-Carter cut the turf
to bring a railway through the valley;
post-horn waggons ran too slow —
Coaches come, coaches go.
Edward Gibbon, born and bred
beside the church, within the Manor,
warned against a status quo —
Romans come, Romans go.
But old St Mary's,
through it all,
with ironstone roots
declines to fall.