I sing the just, and uncontrolled descent
Of dame Venetia Digby, styled the fair:
For mind, and body, the most excellent
That ever nature, or the later air
Gave two such houses as Northumberland,
And Stanley, to the which she was co-heir.
Speak it, you bold penates, you that stand
At either stem, and know the veins of good
Run from your roots; tell, testify the grand
Meeting of graces, that so swelled the flood
Of virtues in her, as, in short, she grew
The wonder of her sex, and of your blood.
And tell thou, Aldeleigh, none can tell more true
Thy niece's line, than thou that gav'st thy name
Into the kindred, whence thy Adam drew
Meschin's honour with the Cestrian fame
Of the first Lupus, to the family