A GENTLEWOMAN OF THE OLD SCHOOL. HE lived in Georgian era too. SH Most women then, if bards be true, Devout and acid. But hers was neither fate. She came Of good west-country folk, whose fame Patience or Prudence,-what you will, As those old musky scents that fill Our grandams' pillows; And for her youthful portrait take Some long-waist child of Hudson's make, Stiffly at ease beside a lake With swans and willows. I keep her later semblance placed In shadowy sanguine stipple traced By Bartolozzi; A placid face, in which surprise For her e'en Time grew debonair. Had spared to touch the fair old face, The soft white hand that stroked her lace, Was comely as her youth was sage, And yet she once had been the rage;- Indeed, affirmed by one or two, Some spark at Bath (as sparks will do) I know she thought; I know she felt; Perchance could sum, I doubt she spelt, She knew as little of the Celt As of the Saxon; Starving, in fact, 'twixt want and pride; He worshipped her, you may suppose. She gained him pupils, gave him clothes, Delighted in his dry bon-mots And cackling laughter; And when, at last, the long duet Of conversation and picquet Ceased with her death, of sheer regret Dear Madam Placid! Others knew Their loves are lost; but still we see Bloom yearly with the almond tree The Frenchman planted. THE BALLAD OF "BEAU BROCADE." S "Hark! I hear the sound of coaches!" BEGGAR'S OPERA. EVENTEEN hundred and thirty-nine :- First great GEORGE was buried and gone; LONDON then, as the "Guides " aver, Shared its glories with Westminster ; And people of rank, to correct their "tone," Those were the days of the War with Spain, WHITEFIELD preached to the colliers grim, WALPOLE talked of 66 a man and his price "; Those, in fine, were the brave days when And of all the knights of the gentle trade This they knew on the whole way down; (For timorous cits on their pilgrimage Would "club" for a "Guard " to ride the stage; And the Guard that rode on more than one Open we here on a March-day fine, There was Barber DICK with his basin by; Portly product of Beef and Beer, JOHN the host, he was standing near. Straining and creaking, with wheels awry, |