And then as the twilight closed over the dell-- Where the corn stood green that Midsummer-day-- Came the farmers and peasants all flocking to tell How Sir Lancelot's troop had gone over the fell! And the widows sat listening, and spinning away. And the widows looked mournfully round the old hall; And the corn stood green on Midsummer-day; "He is come at the good Lord Clifford's call! He is up for the King, with his warriors all!"-- Said the widows there spinning the eve away. "There is evil to happen, and war is at hand-- Where the corn stands green this Midsummer-day-- Or rebels are plotting to waste the land; Or he never would come with his armed band"-- Said the widows there spinning the eve away. "Our old men sleep in the grave. They cease: While the corn stands green on Midsummer-day-- They rest, though troubles on earth increase; And soon may Sir Lancelot's soul have peace!" Sighed the widows while spinning the eve away. "But this was the Promise the Shepherd-Lord-- When the corn stood green that Midsummer-day-- Gave, parting from Threlkeld's hearth and board, To the brave old Knight--and he keeps his word!" Said the widows all putting their spinning away. NOTES TO "SIR LANCELOT THRELKELD." The little village of Threlkeld is situated at the foot of Blencathra about four miles from Keswick, on the highroad from that town to Penrith. The old hall has long been in a state of dilapidation, the only habitable part having been for years converted into a farm house. Some faint traces of the moat are said to be yet discernible. This was one of the residences of Sir Lancelot Threlkeld, a powerful knight in the reign of Henry the Seventh, step-father to the Shepherd Lord. His son, the last Sir Lancelot, was wont to say that he had "three noble houses--one for pleasure, Crosby in Westmorland, where he had a park full of deer; one for profit and warmth, wherein to reside during winter, namely, Yanwath, near Penrith; and the third, Threlkeld, on the edge of the vale of Keswick, well stocked with tenants to go with him to the wars." Sir Lancelot is said to have been a man of a kind and generous disposition, who had either taken the side of the White Rose in the great national quarrel, or at least had not compromised himself to a ruinous extent on the other side; and has long had the reputation of having afforded a retreat to the Shepherd Lord Clifford, on the utter ruin of his house, after the crushing of the Red Rose at Towton, when the Baron (his late father) was attained in parliament, and all his lands were seized by the crown.