Brisk Sufan whips her linnen from the rope,
While the first drizzling fhow'r is borne aflope:
Such is that sprinkling, which fome careless
quean

Flirts on you
from her mop, but not so clean :
You fly, invoke the Gods; then turning, stop
To rail; fhe finging, ftill whirls on her mop.
Not yet the dust had shunn'd th' unequal ftrife,
But, aided by the wind, fought ftill for life,
And wafted with its foe by vi'lent guft,

'Twas doubtful which was rain, and which was duft.

Ah! where muft needy poet feek for aid, When duft and rain at once his coat invade? Sole coat, where duft cemented by the rain Erects the nap, and leaves a cloudy stain. Now in contiguous drops the flood comesdown, Threat'ning with deluge this devoted town. To shops in crowds the daggled females fly, Pretend to cheapen goods, but nothing buy. The templar spruce, while ev'ry spout's abroach,

Stays till 'tis fair, yet feems to call a coach. The tuck'd-up femstress walks with hasty ftrides,

While ftreams run down her oil'd umbrella's

fides.

'Twas doubtful which was fea, and which was sky.

2

Garth's Difp.
Here

*

Here various kinds, by various fortunes led,
Commence acquaintance underneath a fhed.
Triumphant tories, and defponding whigs †,
Forget their feuds, and join to fave their wigs.
Box'd in a chair the beau impatient fits,
While fpouts run clatt'ring o'er the roof by fits;
And ever and anon with frightful din
The leather founds; he trembles from within.
So when Troy chairmen bore the wooden steed,
Pregnant with Greeks impatient to be freed,
(Those bully Greeks, who, as the moderns do,
Inftead of paying chairmen, run them thro',)
Laocoon ftruck the outfide with his fpear,
And each imprison'd hero quak'd for fear.
Now from all parts the fwelling kennels
flow,

And bear their trophies with them as they go:
Filths of all hues and odours seem to tell
What street they fail'd from by their fight and
fmell.

*This was written in the first year of the earl of Oxford's miniftry.

+ As whig and wig only differ by an afpiration which is fcarce to be diftinguished, it may be thought an exception to the dean's remarkable exactnefs, that he has made. them rhyme but the fame

thing was afterwards done by mr. Pope, either upon the dean's authority, or because he did not think it liable to objection:

A joke on Jekyll or fome odd old whig,

Who never chang'd his principles or wig.

They,

They, as each torrent drives, with rapid force, From Smithfield or St. 'Pulchre's fhape their course,

And in huge confluence join'd at Snowhill ridge, Fall from the conduit prone to Holborn-bridge. Sweepings from butchers ftalls, dung,

*

guts, and blood,

Drown'd puppies, ftinking fprats, all drench'd in mud,

Dead cats, and turnip-tops, come tumbling down the flood.

Now Betty from her master's bed had flown, And foftly stole to difcompofe her own : The flipfhod 'prentice from his master's door Had par'd the dirt, and sprinkled round the floor.

Now Moll had whirl'd her mop with dextrous airs,

Prepar'd to fcrub the entry and the stairs. The youth with broomy ftumps began to

*

trace

The kennel's edge, where wheels had worn the place,

The small-coal man was heard with cadence

deep,

Till drown'd in fhriller notes of chimneyfweep:

Duns at his lordship's gate began to meet; And brick-duft Moll had fcream'd through half the ftreet.

The turnkey now his flock returning fees, Duly let out a-nights to fteal for fees: The watchful bailiffs take their filent ftands, And school-boys lag with fatchels in their hands.

* To find old nails.

HORACE,

Imitated, and Addressed to

*

THE EARL OF OXFORD,

HA

In the Year 1713 t.

5

ARLEY, the nation's great fupport, I Returning home one day from court, (His mind with publick cares poffeft, All Europe's bus'ness in his breast) Obferv'd a parfon near Whitehall Cheap'ning old authors on a stall. The priest was pretty well in cafe, And fhew'd fome humour in his face; Look'd with an eafy, careless mein, A perfect stranger to the spleen;

1. Strenuus et fortis, cauffifque Philippus agendis Clarus, ab officiis oltavam circiter boram Dum redit

5. Confpexit, ut aiunt,

Adrafum quendam vacua tonforis in umbrâ
Cultello proprios purgantem leniter ungues.

Robert Harley, efq; three times fpeaker of the houfe of commons, once in king William's reign, and twice in queen Anne's created baron Harley of Wigmore, earl of Oxford and earl Mortimer, the 24th of April 1711, and lord

IO

high treafurer of England, on the 29th of the faid month.

In this year the author was made dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin. See an account of his first interview with mr. Harley, in his letter to dr. King, Oct. 10, 1710: Vol. XII.

Of