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Inscribed in black ink upper right: "9"; in graphite center: "x"; on verso in black ink upper left: "10"; in graphite center: "+"

Lettered on inlaid page: "COUNTRY CHURCH-YARD. 155 | On some fond breast the parting soul relies, | Some pious drops the closing eye requires; | Ev'n from the tomb the voice of Nature cries, | Ev'n in our ashes live their wonted fires. | For thee, who mindful of th' unhonour'd Dead, | Dost in these lines their artless tale relate; | If chance, by lonely Contemplation led, | Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate, | Haply some hoary-headed swain may say, | 'Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn, | 'Brushing with hasty steps the dews away, | 'To meet the sun upon the upland lawn. | 'There at the foot of yonder nodding beech, | 'That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high, | 'His listless length at noon-tide would he stretch, | 'And pore upon the brook that babbles by. | 'Hard"; Lettered on verso, on inlaid page: "156 ELEGY WRITTEN IN A | 'Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn, | 'Mutt'ring his wayward fancies he would rove; | 'Now drooping, woeful wan, like one forlorn, | 'Or craz'd with care, or cross'd in hopeless love. | 'One morn I miss'd him on the custom'd hill, | 'Along the heath and near his favorite tree; | 'Another came; nor yet beside the rill, | 'Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he: | 'The next with dirges due in sad array | 'Slow thro' the church-way path we saw him | 'borne, | 'Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay | 'Grav'd on the stone beneath yon aged thorn.' | THE."