One rudely ask'd, Pray, how does Master Shiloh?
Another follows-how the deuce should I know!

A third cries, faugh! he, with his silver casket:
'Twas neither more, nor less, than her pin-basket.
We have no Sarahs, now,'tis all a sham-
Remember the late dame of Buckingham.
Why did not, Harriet, thou great girlish gaby,
Present a pap-boat to his Grace the baby?
Or, as of old, with graceful melancholy,
Appoint him aid-de-camp-to nurse thy dolly?

If Sunday's "Age," load us with coarse abuse,
How cuts, and stings, and tortures us, the News!".
A nine days' wonder will no more suffice:
The page of history shall brand my vice..
In every nerve, e'en now, methinks, I feel
The endless tortures of Ixion's wheel:
Nor sooth'd by time, nor by specific lotion,
In me behold, at length, perpetual motion.

With Wellesley how was Wellington not there?
True, he's a Duke; and more he's premier.
Of late, he's had a call to godly work,

And preaches, to Archbishops Cant, and York.

110

120

The fawning clergy hail schismatics undone;

As, in their view, appears King's College, London.

Here, graceful Arthur-there, prays graceless Dan: 130
Mischief stalks, boldly, now, in either van.

The popish rent, there, gives its champion weight;
Our senate, here, makes its own premier great.
In either Island, he, not blinded, sees
Hypocrisy's rais'd eyes, and prostrate knees:
While, from, the pompous dome, to rock, plain, bog,
Echo-God save King George-God save king log!
The sword shall aid the labours of the pen,

No tongue shall wag, but what exclaims, Amen!

Oh! for the spear, which could each fraud detect! 140 We've had enough, I think, of stage effect→

Or did think, till I read that Londonderry

1

Mimic'd Queen Bess, to make the great world merry.

Her feasts, and splendours, every heart engage,

And every voice cries,
voice cries, “All the world's a stage:"
Fair Belfast whispers, as, in state, they move,
Holdernesse-House surpasses Holly-Grove..

Thence, Wynyard-Park receives th' ambitious guest :-
Her hopes are granted: there, too, she plays best.

So have I seen, in black and white,

A prating thing, a magpie, hight,

Majestically stalk;

A stately, worthless animal,

That plies the tongue, and wags the tail-
All flutter, pride, and talk.

Degraded Britain! now shake off all fears;
Thy peers are puppets, and thy puppets, peers.
Base pimps and panders, well, that presence suit,
Whose council's wisdom is, to play the flute :
And Lords attend, to watch the conscious door,

Which screens their ladies, as they play the whore:

Though war devastates every nation round,

150

160

And Cain-like floods, make drunk the blushing ground,

And infants draw, from out a mother's breast,
That death, wherein a starving sire has rest.

Princes and placemen, parasites and priests,
Enjoy the dainties of your god-less feasts;
Nor heed Jehovah's record, on the wall,
Till one vast ruin overwhelm ye all!

END OF CANTO III.

NOTES

ON

HOLLY-GROVE.

CANTO III.

Line 6. Nor were their tenants slow, to drink and eat.

The appetites, with which the fashionable world resort, to public breakfasts, were pretty well exemplified, in the fête, given at Chiswick, by the Horticultural Society. It should, always, however, be borne in mind, that this fête, though, in the fashionable phrase, given, cost each visitor a guinea a head; and the John Bull, even of the first circles, like Taffy, will have "a pounce for hur money."

Though there were three thousand to be filled, it was not with five barley loaves, and two small fishes. Their consumption averaged 24 lbs. of solid, to each individual, young and delicate females included, with drink in pro

portion. The miracle here, was inverted; for, so enormous were the cravings, that, mirabile dictu, they, loudly, complained of being sent, empty, away!

Line 11. The first slight pause, majestic Sussex rose.

It was so, that when any man, that had a controversy, came to the king, for judgment, then Absalom called unto him and said

...............

See, thy matters are good, and right; but there is no

man deputed, of the king, to hear thee.

Oh! that I were made judge, in the land, that every man, which hath any suit or cause, might come unto me, and I would do him justice!

And it was so, that when any man came nigh to him, to do him obeisance, he put forth his hands and took him, and kissed him. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.

AII. Samuel, chap. xv. v. 2 to 6.

I cannot help contrasting, here, the dispositions, and conduct of the royal Dukes of York, and of Sussex. If the Duke of York's evidence were required, in a court of justice, even though his royal highness were sensible that it must be most painful, to himself, he, always, attended, and answered any questions, as though he were the last individual, whom his answers could affoct. This happened, repeatedly, in reference to circumstances, arising out of that, to him, sorest of all subjects, Mary Ann Clarke.

In the case of poor, ill-used Jarrin, the most accomplished artist of confectionery in London, the Duke of