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No sturdy Hibernian, with shoulders so wide,
But as taper and slim as the ponies they ride;
Their legs are as slim, and their shoulders no wider,
Dear sweet little creatures, both pony and rider !
But sometimes, when hotter, I order my chaise,
And manage, myself, my two little grays:
There never were seen two such sweet little ponies,
Other horses are clowns, and these macaronies;
And to give them this title I'm sure isn't wrong,
Their legs are so slim, and their tails are so long.
In Kensington Gardens to stroll up and down,
You know was the fashion before you left town.
The thing's well enough, when allowance is made
For the size of the trees and the depth of the shade;
But the spread of their leaves such a shelter affords
To those noisy impertinent creatures call'd birds,
Whose ridiculous chirruping ruins the scene,

Brings the country before me, and gives me the spleen. We have yet another society satirist to notice in the person of the Rev. James Bramston,* on whom Leigh Hunt has already conferred a quasi-immortality by quoting, from his Man of Taste, the line

Without black-velvet breeches, what is man?

Unfortunately the poem, though it has a large measure of persiflage, and many felicitous expressions, is not all of it so good as this. There are such couplets as

Rhyme bends and beautifies the poet's bays,

As London ladies owe their shape to stays.

But that is about all. The Art of Politics, by the same writer, is livelier and more vigorous. For example:

Parliamenteering is a sort of itch,

That will too oft unwary knights bewitch.
Two good estates Sir Harry Clodpole spent ;
Sate thrice, but spoke not once, in Parliament.

* Died 1744. His Man of Taste and Art of Politics are in Dodsley's Collection.

Two good estates are gone-who'll take his word?
Oh, should his uncle die, he'll spend a third;
He'd buy a house, his happiness to crown,
Within a mile of some good borough-town.
Tag-rag and bobtail to Sir Harry's run,

Men that have votes, and women that have none;
Sons, daughters, grandsons, with his honour dine;
He keeps a public-house without a sign.
Cobblers and smiths extol th' evening choice,
And drunken tailors boast their right of voice.
Dearly the free-born neighbourhood is bought;
They never leave him while he's worth a groat.

Bramston also wrote an imitation of Philips's Splendid Shilling, called the Crooked Sixpence. His Art of Politics and Man of Taste are themselves imitations, in their way, of the satires of Pope, though at a very considerable distance. Bramston is, however, hardly so well known, even by name, as the merits of his works-and they are undeniable -deserve that he should be.

Matthew Green* is chiefly known in literature as the author of The Spleen-a 'poem' on one of those particularly unpoetic subjects which writers of his century were fond of choosing. It is a very dreary production, and we should. not be disposed to describe its author as being naturally a humourist. That he had, however, a certain amount of shrewdness and of Hudibrastic satire may be gathered from the lines he wrote on the respective Histories' of Mr. Laurence Eachard and Bishop Gilbert Burnet:

Gil's history appears to me
Political anatomy;

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A case of skeletons well done,
And malefactors every one.

His sharp and strong incision-pen

Historically cuts up men,

And does with lucid skill impart
These inward ails of head and heart.

* Born 1696, died 1737.

Laurence proceeds another way,
And well-dressed figures does display:
His characters are all in flesh,

Their hands are fair, their faces fresh;
And from his sweetening heart derive
A better scent than when alive.

He wax-work made to please the sons
Whose fathers were Gil's skeletons.

Only one Scotchman can be said to be represented in the wit and humour of this period, and that is Allan Ramsay,* who belongs, indeed, partly to the time of Pope, and partly to the time of Goldsmith. His chief work is The Gentle Shepherd, which deserves remembrance more on account of its accuracy as a picture of Scotch rustic life than of its humour, which is not very great at its best, and which is never very intelligible to Englishmen. We doubt if it is very highly appreciated by the writer's countrymen, who prefer something more incisive than the homely talk of country people, and for whom not even Bauldry has a very great attraction. We refrain from quoting from the poem, because its most humorous passages are exactly those which would be least comprehensible by the general reader. We merely refer to Ramsay's Fables for the same reason. It must, in fact, be confessed, that for pure wit and humour we must go to Ramsay's English work, and especially to his epigrams, some of which are excellent. Take, for in

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stance, this on Whig and Tory:'

Whig and Tory scratch and bite,

Just as hungry dogs we see;

Toss a bone 'twixt two, they fight;
Throw a couple, they agree.

Take, again, this, addressed to a lady to whom, at the same time, he returned a book called The Intelligencer :

I have kept your Intelligence,' madam, so long,
That I hardly dare hope you will pardon the wrong;

Ramsay was born in 1686, and died in 1758. The Gentle Shepherd appeared in 1725.

K

Had you been but a man, no excuse I had writ,
For we're seldom severe to the faults we commit.
But Intelligence' kept the kind ladies most gall,
Who no sooner receive it than part with it all!

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Then-in another vein and mood-to a lady who had given him an orange:

Now, Priam's son, thou mayst be mute,

For I can blithely boast with thee;
Thou to the fairest gave the fruit,

The fairest gave the fruit to me.

This, for the author of the chief Scottish eclogue in the language, is wonderfully polished, and exhibits the wide extent of Ramsay's talent.

CHAPTER VI.

GOLDSMITH AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES.

Oliver Goldsmith-Retaliation'-'The Gift'-EpigramsEdward Young-The Love of Fame'-EpigramsSamuel Johnson-Vanity of Human Wishes'- Epigrams-Charles Churchill-The Prophecy of Famine'

'The Rosciad'-Henry Fielding-Tom Thumb'— Lines to Sir Robert Walpole-Henry Carey- Chrononhotonthologus'-Lines-Thomas Gray-Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat'-Epigram-Sir Charles Hanbury Williams-Lines on Lord Bute-Lines on General Churchill-Horace Walpole-Epigram-Lord Chesterfield-Epigram-Lines on the Duchess of RichmondDavid Garrick-Epigrams-John Byrom-EpigramsRobert Fergusson-Epigrams-Hawkins Browne—‹ The Pipe of Tobacco'-Lloyd and Colman- Ode to Obscurity' The Actor'-Lisle- Eurydice.'

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