Rudyard Kipling — The Landau Praed

There was a landau deep and wide,      Cushioned for Sleep’s own self to sit on— The glory of the country-side      From Tanner’s End to Marlow Ditton. John of the broad and brandied cheek         (Well I recall its eau-de-vie hues! ) Drove staid Sir Ralph five days a week         At speeds which we considered Jehu’s. . . . But now’ poor John sleeps very sound,      And neither hears nor smells the fuss Of the young Squire’s nine-hundred-pound—      Er—Mors communis omnibus. And I who in my daily stroll         Observe the reckless chauffeur crowd her, Laudator temporis, extol         The times before the Act allowed her.