We recently found a copy of the “Engineers’ Pocket-Book for the year 1840”. As well as accounts and notes on his work the owner had written the following poem expressing his hopes about life
O that I could obtain my wish
I’d have each day a dainty dish
Of plain meat fowl or fish
With a bottle of port or good strong beer
In winter time when my fire burns clear
My pipe and easy chair
I too would have to sweeten life
A gentle kind good-natured wife
Young, sensible and fair
One that would love lent me alone
Prefer my cottage to a throne
Would sooth my every care
In some snug spot or cool retreat
With a neat little garden beside my gate
And a thousand pounds of estate
And when that my expence is clear
Of all that I have got to spare
The neighbouring poor shall share
But since kind fortune not thought fit
To place me in affluence yet
I’ll be contented with what I can get
I’ll from each vice and folly fly
Each virtue to attain I’ll try
And live as I’d wish to die