To raise the ceiling's fretted height, Each pannel in achievements clothing, Rich windows that exclude the light, And passages, that lead to nothing 2. Full oft within the spacious walls, When he had fifty winters o'er him, My grave lord-keeper 3 led the brawls; The seal and maces danc'd before him. His bushy beard, and shoe-strings green, His high-crown'd hat, and sattin doublet, Mov'd the stout heart of England's queen, Though pope and Spaniard could not trouble it. What, in the very first beginning! Shame of the versifying tribe! A house there is (and that's enough) From whence one fatal morning issues A brace of warriors 4, not in buff, But rustling in their silks and tissues. The first came cap-a-pee from France, Her conquering destiny fulfilling, Whom meaner beauties eye askance, And vainly ape her art of killing. The other Amazon kind Heaven Had arm'd with spirit, wit, and satire: But Cobham had the polish given, And tipp'd her arrow with good-nature, To celebrate her eyes, her air Coarse panegyrics would but tease her. Melissa is her nom de guerre. Alas, who would not wish to please her! With bonnet blue and capuchine, And aprons long they hid their armour, And veil'd their weapons bright and keen, In pity to the country farmer. Fame, in the shape of Mr. P-t5, (By this time all the parish know it) Had told, that thereabouts there lurk'd A wicked imp they called a poet: • The mansion-house at Stoke-Pogis, then in the possession of viscountess Cobham. The style of building, which we now call queen Elizabeth's, is here admirably described, both with regard to its beauties and defects; and the third and fourth stanzas delineate the fantastic manners of her time with equal truth and humour. The house formerly belonged to the earls of Huntingdon and the family of Hatton. M. 3 Sir Christopher Hatton, promoted by queen Elizabeth for his graceful person and fine dancing. G.--Brawls were a sort of figure-dance, then in vogue, and probably deemed as elegant as our modern cotillions, or still more modern quadrilles. M. 4 The reader is already apprised who these ladies were; the two descriptions are prettily contrasted; and nothing can be more happily turned than the compliment to lady Cobham in the eighth stanza. M. I have been told that this gentleman, a neigh The house-keeper. 7 Groom of the chamber. C. The steward. G. "He once or twice had penn'd a sonnet: He ne'er was for a conj'rer taken.” The ghostly prudes with hagged face 19 She smil'd, and bid him come to dinner". "Jesu-Maria! Madam Bridget, Why, what can the viscountess mean! Her air and all her manners show it. Speak to a commoner and poet!" [Here 500 stanzas are lost.] And so God save our noble king, And guard us from long-winded lubbers, And keep my lady from her rubbers. 10 Hagged, i. e. the face of a witch or hag; the epithet hagard has been sometimes mistaken, as conveying the same idea; but it means a very different thing, viz. wild and farouche, and is taken from an unreclaimed hawk, called an haggard. M. "Here the story finishes; the exclamation of the ghosts which follows is characteristic of the Spanish manners of the age, when they are supposed to have lived; and the five hundred stanzas, said to be lost, may be imagined to contain the re 9 A famous highwayman, hanged the week be- mainder of their long-winded expostulation. M. fore. G. GEORGE LYTTELTON, the son of sir Thomas Lyttelton, of Hagley in Worcestershire, was born in 1709. He was educated at Eton, where he was so much distinguished, that his exercises were recommended as models to his schoolfellows. From Eton he went to Christ-church, where he retained the same reputation of superiority, and displayed his abilities to the public in a poem on Blenheim. He was a very early writer, both in verse and prose. His Progress of Love, and his Persian Letters, were both written when he was very young; and indeed the character of a young man is very visible in both. The verses cant of shepherds and flocks, and crooks dressed with flowers; and the letters have something of that indistinct and headstrong ardour for liberty which a man of genius always catches when he enters the world, and always suffers to cool as he passes forward. He staid not long in Oxford; for in 1728 he began his travels, and saw France and Italy. When he returned, he obtained a seat in parliament, and soon distinguished himself among the most eager opponents of sir Robert Walpole, though his father, who was commissioner of the admiralty, always voted with the court. For many years the name of George Lyttelton was seen in every account of every debate in the house of commons. He opposed the standing army; he opposed the excise; he supported the motion for petitioning the king to remove Walpole. His zeal was considered by the courtiers not only as violent, but as acrimonious and malignant ; and, when Walpole was at last kunted from his places, every effort was made by his friends, and many friends he had, to exclude Lyttelton from the secret committee. The prince of Wales, being (1737) driven from St. James's, kept a separate court, and opened his arms to the opponents of the ministry. Mr. Lyttelton became his secretary, and was supposed to have great influence in the direction of his conduct. He persuaded his master, whose business it was now to be popular, that he would advance his character by patronage. Mallet was made under-secretary, with 2007.; and Thomson had a pension of 100l. a year. For Thomson, Lyttelton always retained his kindness, and was able at last to place him at ease. |