Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

IMPROMPTU,

SUGGESTED BY A VIEW, IN 1766,

OF THE

SEAT AND RUINS OF A DECEASED NOBLEMAN,

AT KINGSGATE, KENT.

OLD, and abandon'd by each venal friend,
Here Hd form'd the pious resolution
To smuggle a few years, and strive to mend
A broken character and constitution.

On this congenial spot he fix'd his choice;
Earl Goodwin trembled for his neighb'ring sand;
Here sea-gulls scream, and cormorants rejoice,
And mariners, though shipwreck'd, dread to
land.

Here reign the blust'ring North and blighting East,
No tree is heard to whisper, bird to sing;
Yet Nature could not furnish out the feast,

Art he invokes new horrors still to bring.

Here mould'ring fanes and battlements arise,
Turrets and arches nodding to their fall,
Unpeopled monast'ries delude our eyes,
And mimic desolation covers all.

"Ah!" said the sighing peer, "had B-te been

"true,

"Nor M-'s, R-'s, B's friendship vain, "Far better scenes than these had blest our view, "And realiz'd the beauties which we feign.

"Purg'd by the sword, and purify'd by fire,

"Then had we seen proud London's hated walls; "Owls would have hooted in St. Peter's choir,

"And foxes stunk and litter'd in St. Paul's."

[ocr errors]

THE

CANDIDATE;

OR,

THE CAMBRIDGE COURTSHIP.

[This jeu d'esprit was written a short time previous to the Election of a Iligh Steward of the University of Cambridge, for which Office the Noble Lord alluded to made an active Canvas.]

WHEN sly Jemmy Twitcher had smugg'd up

his face,

With a lick of court white-wash, and pious grimace,
A wooing he went, where three sisters of old
In harmless society guttle and scold.

Lord! sister, says PHYSIC to LAW, I declare, Such a sheep-biting look, such a pick-pocket air! Not I for the Indies! -You know I'm no prude,— But his name is a shame, and his eyes are so lewd! Then he shambles and straddles so oddly-I fear No-at our time of life 'twould be silly, my

dear.

« EelmineJätka »