"as Sung with very great Applause by MISS QUARMAN, at the VILLA GARDENS BATH, On His Royal Highness The PRINCE of WALES's BIRTHDAY. Set by Benjamin Milgrove. Entered at Stationers Hall. Published for the author at Bath, and sold by most of the Music Shops in Town and Country. Price 1s." 1785. The song was offered with full orchestral and keyboard only accompaniments.

Milgrove was Organist/Precentor at the Countess of Huntingdon's Chapel and a toyman (kickshaws seller) of Bond Street, Bath. I have not identified Miss Quarman.

Lyrics: William Cowper

The rose had been washed on its bank by a show'r
Which Anne to Maria conveyed;
The plentiful moisture cumbered the flow'r
And weighed down its elegant head.

The cup was all filled and the leaves were all wet,
And it seemed to a fanciful view,
To weep for the buds it had left with regret,
On the flourishing bush where it grew.

I hastily seized it - unfit as it was,
For a nosegay so dripping and drowned,
And swinging it rudely - too rudely, alas,
I snapped it - it fell to the ground.

And such I exclaimed is the pitiless part,
Which some act by the delicate mind,
Unheedful of wringing and breaking a heart,
Already to sorrow inclined.

This beautiful rose, had I shaken it less,
Might have bloomed with its owner awhile,
And the tear that is wiped with a little address,
May be followed perhaps by a smile.