Besides, only think, my dear one of Sixteen, What an emblem this bird, for the epicure's use meant, Presents of the mode in which Ireland has been Made a tid-bit for yours and your brethren's amusement: Tied down to the stake, while her limbs, as they quiver, IRISH ANTIQUITIES. ACCORDING to some learn'd opinions When forth they march'd in long array, And still the antiquarian traces 'Mong Irish Lords this Pagan plan, For still, in all religious cases, They put Lord R-d-n in the van. *To this practice the ancient adage alludes, " Asinus portans mysteria." A CURIOUS FACT. THE present Lord K-ny-n (the Peer who writes letters, For which the waste-paper folks much are his debtors) Hath one little oddity, well worth reciting, Which puzzleth observers, ev'n more than his writing. Whenever Lord K-ny-n doth chance to behold A cold Apple-pie―mind, the pie must be cold— His Lordship looks solemn (few people know why), And he makes a low bow to the said apple-pie. This idolatrous act, in so "vital" a Peer, Is, by most serious Protestants, thought rather queer Pie-worship, they hold, coming under the head (Vide Crustium, chap. iv.) of the Worship of Bread. Some think 'tis a tribute, as author, he owes For the service that pie-crust hath done to his prose;— The only good things in his pages, they swear, Being those that the pastry-cook sometimes puts there. Others say, 'tis a homage, through pie-crust convey'd, But 'tis needless to add, these are all vague surmises, His death was brought on by a bad indigestion, See the anecdote, which the Duchess of Marlborough relates in her Memoirs, of this polite hero appropriating to himself one day, at dinner, a whole dish of green peas-the first of the season - while the poor Princess Anne, who was then in a longing condition, sat by, vainly entreating, with her eyes, for a share. †The same prudent propensity characterises his descend From cold apple-pie-crust his Lordship would stuff in, 'Tis pure apple-pie-ety moves my Lord K-ny-n. ant, who (as is well known) would not even go to the expense of a diphthong on his father's monument, but had the inscription spelled, economically, thus: "Mors janua vita.” |