intend to pay due respect to the spot where I was buried, vifit my own grave, and write my own epitaph. Though you humourously inform me that has been already done for me in a very handsome manner, by my friends, in England. This is the third time in the courfe of my life, that I have been put to death, in the newfpapers, without my confent or know, ledge.

Thrice they flew the flain.” And, let me affure you,

Thrice have I liv'd again.”

་

True, indeed, I was taken out of the world fuddenly, and once went off after a lingering ficknefs. But to fhew that the principle of charity ftill furvives in me, I forgive all thofe who have had a hand in my death, with all my heart; and really, at this good natured moment, feel a fort of reluctance, at the impoffibility of giving my friends this public fatisfaction of knowing I am in the land of the living, without, at the fame time, disappointing thofe, if any fuch there be, who have derived any fatisfaction in numbering me with the dead, By way of confolation, however, I will have the kindness to inform them that, notwithstanding,

"In all my wanderings round this world of care,
"In all my griefs, and God has giv'n my fhare,”

I am just now in general good fpirits and health, they may expect in fomething lefs than a hundred years, to have the pleasant intelligence confirmed. Meantime, I heartily with them, and you, my friends and enemies, the comfort of being killed only upon paper, f for many years to come; with the additional agrément of revisiting the country where they died as often as they please! If it contains the lovely fcenery which blooms round Coblentz, where I have been fo long entombed; and which scenery I have in store for you; their happy ghofts, miftaking it, perhaps, for the Elyfian Fields, might not be fond to refign it."

་་

But, gracious Providence! what will not we bear, and l'on dit, those two well-informed perfonages, who know every thing that has, and has not happened, fay? Since I have been. upon the Continent, I have been affured of fo many events having taken place to myself and others, not one of which ever did, will, or can happen, in politics, in civil, or in uncivil matters, that, methinks it would be a pleasant work to bring under one point of view, a collection

Bb4

lection of l'on dits, and we hears, or the rumour book of what was faid to be, which was not, for the new-year. It might be published, you know, with the almanacks, and, I question, whether even Mr. Newberry ever yet offered his little or great readers, a book half so full of pretty and wonderful ftories.

But in another of the papers you have fent me, I discover a fecond pencil mark, accompanied by requests thus expreffed: "This must be Gleaned." You remember, it is oppofite the little funeral tribute I paid to the deathdevoted horse, of my beloved friend*, to whom the public are indebted; and a large debt it is, for introducing the three greatest poets of Greece into England, and in an English dress, as rich, graceful, and flowing, as the robes of their own country. You have a paffage too, in your letter, importing, that the petitionary verfes of this poor fteed, will ferve as a very proper counterpart to the hiftory I have given of my own aged horfe in our firft fheaf: and defire to preferve them from the fate of fugitive papers, or the flying fheets of the day, in our, I hope, more permanent correspondHere then, in obedience to your wishes,

ence.

I infert,

Mr. Potter, Prebend of Norwich.

THE

THE ADDRESS

THE SUPERANNUATED HORSE,

то

HIS MASTER,

Who, on account of his (the horse) being unable from extreme olå age, to live through the winter, bad sentenced him to be shot.

I.

AND haft thou fix'd my doom, fweet Mafter, fay?

And wilt thou kill thy fervant, old and poor?

A little longer let me live, I pray,

A little longer hobble round thy door.

II.

For much it glads me to behold this place,
And house within this hofpitable shed;
It glads me more to fee my Master's face,
And linger near the spot where I was bred.

III.

For oh to think of what we both enjoy'd,
In my life's prime, ere I was old and poor!
When from the jocund morn to eve employ'd,
My gracious Master on this back I bore!

IV.

Thrice told ten years, have danc'd on down along,
Since firft these way-worn limbs to him I gave;
Sweet fmiling years! when both of us were young,
The kindest master and the happiest slave.

V.

Ah, years fweet-fmiling, now for ever flown,
Ten years thrice told, alas, are as a day!
Yet, as together we are aged grown,

Let us together wear our age away.

VI.

For ftill the times, long paft, are dear to thought,
And rapture mark'd each minute as it frew,
To youth, and joy, all change of feasons brought,
Pains that were foft, or pleasures that were new,

VII.

Ev'n when thy lovefick heart felt fond alarms, Alternate throbbing with its hopes and fears; Did I not bear thee to the fair one's arms, Affure thy faith, and dry up all thy tears?

And haft thou fix'd my death, fweet mafter, fay? And wilt thou kill thy fervant, old and poor?

A little longer let me live, I pray,

A little longer hobble round thy door.

IX.

Ah, could't thou bear to fee thy fervant bleed,
Ev'n tho' thy pity has decreed his fate,
And yet, in vain thy heart for life shall plead,
If Nature has deny'd a longer date.

X.

Alas! I feel, 'tis Nature dooms my death,
I feel, too fure, 'tis pity deals the blow;

But, e'er it falls, oh Nature take my breath,

And my kind Mafter, fhall no bloodshed know.