Works

One Sunday morning - service done -
'Mongst tombstones shining in the sun,
A knot of bumpkins stood to chat
Of that and this, and this and that;
What people said of Polly Hatch -...

Thou happy, happy elf!
(But stop, - first let me kiss away that tear) -
Thou tiny image of myself!
(My love, he's poking peas into his ear!)
Thou merry, laughing sprite!
With spirits feather-light,...

"Sweet Memory, wafted by thy gentle gale,
Oft up the stream of time I turn my sail." - ROGERS.


Come, my Crony, let's think upon far-away days,
And lift up a little Oblivion's veil;...

"Do you never deviate?"
John Bull.


In London once I lost my way
In faring to and fro,
And ask'd a little ragged boy
The way that I should go;

He gave a nod, and then a wink,...

"Sit down and fall to, said the Barmecide."
Arabian Nights.


At seven you just nick it,
Give card - get wine ticket;
Walk round through the Babel,
From table to table,...

"I really take it very kind,
This visit, Mrs. Skinner!
I have not seen you such an age -
(The wretch has come to dinner!)

"Your daughters, too, what loves of girls -...

Ben Battle was a soldier bold,
And used to war's alarms;
But a cannon-ball took off his legs,
So he laid down his arms!

Now as they bore him off the field,
Said he, "Let others shoot,...

Look how the lark soars upward and is gone,
Turning a spirit as he nears the sky!
His voice is heard, but body there is none
To fix the vague excursions of the eye....

Two swains or clowns - but call them swains -
Whilst keeping flocks on Salisbury plains,
For all that tend on sheep as drovers
Are turned to songsters or to lovers,
Each of the lass he call'd his dear,...

"A Day after the Fair." - Old Proverb.


John Day he was the biggest man
Of all the coachman kind,
With back too broad to be conceived
By any narrow mind.
...

'Twas in the middle of the night,
To sleep young William tried,
When Mary's ghost came stealing in,
And stood at his bedside.

O William dear! O William dear!
My rest eternal ceases;...

A GOLDEN LEGEND.

"What is here?
Gold! yellow, glittering, precious gold?"
Timon of Athens.




HER PEDIGREE.


I.

To trace the Kilmansegg pedigree...

I.

Ah me! those old familiar bounds!
That classic house, those classic grounds
My pensive thought recalls!
What tender urchins now confine,
What little captives now repine,...

"By the North Pole, I do challenge thee!"
Love's Labour's Lost.



I.

Parry, my man! has thy brave leg
Yet struck its foot against the peg
On which the world is spun?...

Oh Peace, oh come with me and dwell -
But stop, for there's the bell.
Oh Peace! for thee I go and sit in churches
On Wednesday, when there's very few
In loft or pew -...

"Who'll serve the King?"


What little urchin is there never
Hath had that early scarlet fever,
Of martial trappings caught?
Trappings well call'd - because they trap...

"The charge is prepar'd." - Macheath.


If I shoot any more I'll be shot,
For ill-luck seems determined to star me,
I have march'd the whole day
With a gun, - for no pay -...

"Now's the time and now's the hour," - BURNS.

"Seven's the main." - CROCKFORD.



Pity the sorrows of a class of men,
Who, though they bow to fashion and frivolity,...

I.

'Twas in that memorable year
France threaten'd to put off in
Flat-bottom'd boats, intending each
To be a British coffin,
To make sad widows of our wives,
And every babe an orphan: -
...

Full of drink and full of meat,
On our SAVIOUR'S natal day,
CHARITY'S perennial treat;
Thus I heard a Pauper say: -
"Ought not I to dance and sing
Thus supplied with famous cheer?
Heigho!...