Whether they were introduced directly on foreign models, or originated indirectly from the influence of the study of the ancients by means of a regular omission of the first thesis of the iambic metres, we do not know. It is likewise uncertain who was the first to use strict trochaic verses deliberately in English, or in what chronological order the various trochaic metres formed in analogy with the iambic ones entered into English poetry. The longest trochaic lines, to which we first turn our attention, seem to be of comparatively late date. The =eight-foot trochaic line=, more exactly definable as the acatalectic trochaic tetrameter (cf. § 77), is the longest trochaic metre we find in English poetry. As a specimen of this metre the first stanza of a short poem by Thackeray written in this form has been quoted already on page 127. As a rule, however, this acatalectic feminine line is mingled with catalectic verses with masculine endings, as e.g. in the following burlesque by Thackeray, _Damages Two Hundred Pounds_: _Só, God bléss the Spécial Júry! | príde and jóy of Énglish gróund, Ánd the háppy lánd of Éngland, | whére true jústice dóes abóund! Brítish júrymén and húsbands, | lét us háil this vérdict próper: Íf a Brítish wífe offénds you, | Brítons, yóu've a ríght to whóp her._ While the catalectic iambic tetrameter is a line of seven feet (the last arsis being omitted), the catalectic trochaic tetrameter loses only the last thesis, but keeps the preceding arsis; and on this account it remains a metre of eight feet. Rhyming couplets of this kind of verse, when broken up into short lines, give rise to stanzas with the formulas _a ~ b c ~ b₄, d ~ e ~ f ~ e ~₄_, or, if inserted rhymes are used, we have the form _a ~ b a ~ b₄_ (alternating masculine and feminine endings), or _a ~ b ~ a ~ b ~₄_ (if there are feminine endings only). In both these cases the eight-foot rhythm is distinctly preserved to the ear. But this is no longer the case in another trochaic metre of eight feet, where the theses of both the fourth and the eighth foot are wanting, as may be noticed in Swinburne, _A Midsummer Holiday_, p. 132: _Scárce two húndred yéars are góne, | ánd the wórld is pást awáy Ás a nóise of bráwling wínd, | ás a flásh of bréaking fóam, Thát behéld the sínger bórn | whó raised úp the déad of Róme; Ánd a míghtier nów than hé | bíds him tóo rise úp to-dáy;_ still less when such lines are broken up by inserted rhyme in stanzas of the form _a b a b₄_. In cases, too, where the eight-foot trochaic verse is broken up by leonine rhyme, the rhythm has a decided four-foot cadence on account of the rapid recurrence of the rhyme. § =182.= The =seven-foot trochaic line= is theoretically either a brachycatalectic tetrameter with a feminine or a hypercatalectic trimeter with a masculine ending. An example of the first kind we had on p. 128. A more correct specimen is the following line from the same poem: