[1] The poem alludes to the melancholy mood of Edward Standen, the heir to Arborfield Manor and customer of the inn, who had fallen in love with (and was repeatedly rejected by) Molly.
Her death record named her as "Mary Mogg" and described her as "advanced in years but in her youth a celebrated beauty and toast, possessed of a good fortune that she has left among her relations".
I feel I am in love to distraction, My senses all lost in a fog, And nothing can give satisfaction But thinking of sweet Molly Mog.
Those faces want nature and spirit And seem as cut out of a log; Juno, Venus and Pallas's merit Unite in my sweet Molly Mog.
Those who toast all the family Royal In bumpers of hogan and nog, Have hearts not more true or more loyal Than mine to my sweet Molly Mog.
[8] The poem was first published in 1726[9] in Mist's Weekly Journal,[7] and was described as having been "writ by two or three men of wit, upon the occasion of their lying at a certain Inn at Ockingham, where the daughter of the House was remarkably pretty, and whose name was Molly Mog.