Epigram 23. To my dear Cousin-Germans Mrs. Anne, Mrs. Elizabeth, Mrs. Phillipia, and Mrs. Dorothie Stanhope, Sisters

Lincolne was, London is, and York shall be
The most renowned City of the three,
Is an old saying: but I now must tell
Limby (near Nottingham) doth all excel:
Where live four Stanhopes of the female Sex,
Who (to produce them equals) would perplex
The Land; to which (for all things highly good)
They the best pattern may be understood.
My sweet, fair Cousins! all the worlds four parts
(By Imitation of your rare deserts)
May grow in vertue; you a mirrour be,
Where what they should be womankind may see.