satisfied Cowper's sense of fun to an extent that stirred at
last some jealousy in Mrs. Unwin. "She had lived much in
France," Cowper said, "was very sensible, and had infinite
vivacity."

The Vicar of Olney was in difficulties, with his affairs in
the hands of trustees. The duties of his office were entirely
discharged by a curate, and the vicarage was to let. Lady
Austen, in 1782, rented it, to be near her new friends. There
was only a wall between the garden of the house occupied by
Cowper and Mrs. Unwin and the vicarage garden. A door was
made in the wall, and there was a close companionship of
three. When Lady Austen did not spend her evenings with Mrs.
Unwin and Cowper, Mrs. Unwin and Cowper spent their evenings
with Lady Austen. They read, talked, Lady Austen played and
sang, and they all called one another by their Christian
names, William, Mary (Mrs. Unwin), and Anna (Lady Austen). In
a poetical epistle to Lady Austen, written in December, 1781,
Cowper closes a reference to the strength of their friendship
with the evidence it gave,--

"That Solomon has wisely spoken,--
'A threefold cord is not soon broken.'"

One evening in the summer of 1782, when Cowper was low-
spirited, Lady Austen told him in lively fashion the story
upon which he founded the ballad of "John Gilpin." Its
original hero is said to have been a Mr. Bayer, who had a
draper's shop in London, at the corner of Cheapside. Cowper
was so much tickled by it, that he lay awake part of the night