'Oft have I seen, from fam'd St. Michael's height, The ocean's rage, with wonder and delight; Whilst foaming waves the lordly bulk surround, Lashing its bulwarks with a hideous sound: Thetis in vain the lofty pile assails; But all her force and clangour nought avails; The pile majestic scorns the pond'rous shock; Her basis is an Adamantine rock. Just so (in worst of times) its _owner_ stood, Serenely great and resolutely good. His virtues early to the world were known; He makes his country's int'rest still his own. Nor Courts, nor tyrants can his soul affright, Who dares to vindicate his country's right. On him Cornubia's happiness depends; The best of patriots and the best of friends. Guard him, kind Heav'n, to bless his native shore, When truth shall stand, and traytors be no more.' The friend of Pope,[139] I cannot help thinking that the poet may have had the unassailable integrity of his Cornish acquaintance in his mind when he wrote the last line of the couplet which I have prefixed by way of motto to this chapter. Of the fourth baronet it will suffice to record that, having taken the degree of M.A. at Oriel College, Oxon, in 1747, he became a member for Cornwall in 1761, and continued to sit for the county for eleven years. His monument in Clowance Church sums up, sufficiently for our purpose, his character and his career: 'To the memory of Sir John St. Aubyn, Baronet, who, by his descent from a long line of worthy ancestors, and a father distinguished by honest zeal and prudent moderation, was recommended to the important trust of representing in Parliament the county of Cornwall; and justified the confidence of his electors by unshaken constancy of principle, uniting with the dignity of his public character the domestic virtues of tenderness and friendship. This monument was erected by his disconsolate widow. He was born the 12th of Nov., 1726. He died 12th Oct., 1772.'