Authors:
  • Mansions once
    Knew their own masters, and laborious hinds,
    That had surviv'd the father, serv'd the son.
    Now the legitimate and rightful lord
    Is but a transient guest, newly arrived,
    And soon to be supplanted. He that saw
    His patrimonial timber cast its leaf,
    Sells the last scantling, and transfers the price
    To some shrewd sharper ere it buds again. Estates are landscapes, gazed upon awhile,
    Then advertised and auctioneer'd away.

    William Cowper (1828). “The Poems of William Cowper”, p.227