Cotswold Sheep
Guiting Power, Rissington, Burford and Swell
Are the dreamiest places this near side of Hell.
Richly and greenly their pastures unfold
By indolent streamlets to Stow-on-the-Wold.
On gravelly drive-ways by manicured lawns
Stand polished Mercedes and chauffeur-clean broughams
Idling discreetly for tweed-clad commuters.
The dispossessed yeomen are sounding their hooters
And revving their Hondas towards Bourton-on-Water
Or drowning their sorrows in Chipping and Slaughter.
But Cotswold men may sleep o’ nights while Chancellor sits on wool,
Ten centuries of Cotswold sheep have kept their coffers full,
And sheep of lineage like ours maintain a due decorum,
Munching the languid years away in saecla saeculorum.
( The Bertie Ramsbottom Book of Improbable Sheep )