IMPROMPTU,

SUGGESTED BY A VIEW, IN 1766,

OF THE

SEAT AND RUINS OF A DECEASED

NOBLEMAN,

AT KINGSGATE, KENT.

OLD, and abandon'd by each venal friend,

Here Hd form'd the pious resolution
To smuggle a few years, and strive to mend
A broken character and constitution.

On this congenial spot he fix'd his choice;
Earl Goodwin trembled for his neighb'ring sand;
Here sea-gulls scream, and cormorants rejoice,

And mariners, though shipwreck'd, dread to land.
Here reign the blust'ring North and blighting East,
No tree is heard to whisper, bird to sing;
Yet Nature could not furnish out the feast,
Art he invokes new horrors still to bring.

Here mould'ring fanes and battlements arise,
Turrets and arches nodding to their fall,

Unpeopled monast'ries delude our eyes,
And mimic desolation covers all.

"Ah!" said the sighing peer, "had B-te been true,
"Nor M-'s, R-'s, B-'s friendship vain,
"Far better scenes than these had blest our view,
" And realiz'd the beauties which we feign.

" Purg'd by the sword, and purify'd by fire, " Then had we seen proud London's hated walls; "Owls would have hooted in St. Peter's choir, "And foxes stunk and litter'd in St. Paul's."

THE

CANDIDATE;

OR,

THE CAMBRIDGE COURTSHIP.

[This jeu d'esprit was written a short time previous to the Election of a High Steward of the University of Cambridge, for which Office the Noble Lord alluded to made an active Canvas.]

WHEN sly Jemmy Twitcher had smugg'd up his face,

With a lick of court white-wash, and pious grimace,
A wooing he went, where three sisters of old
In harmless society guttle and scold.

Lord! sister, says PHYSIC to Law, I declare,
Such a sheep-biting look, such a pick-pocket air!
Not I for the Indies! - You know I'm no prude,-
But his name is a shame, and his eyes are so lewd!
Then he shambles and straddles so oddly-I fear-
No-at our time of life 'twould be silly, my dear.
I don't know, says Law, but methinks for his look
'Tis just like the picture in Rochester's book;

P

Then his character, Phyzzy, -his morals-his lifeWhen she died, I can't tell, but he once had a wife. They say he's no Christian, loves drinking and w-g, And all the town rings of his swearing and roaring! His lying and filching, and Newgate-bird tricks ;Not I-for a coronet, chariot and six.

DIVINITY heard, between waking and dozing, Her sisters denying, and Jemmy proposing: From table she rose, and with bumper in hand, She strok'd up her belly, and strok'd down her bandWhat a pother is here about wenching and roaring! Why, David lov'd catches, and Solomon wg: Did not Israel filch from the Egyptians of old Their jewels of silver and jewels of gold ? The prophet of Bethel, we read, told a lie; He drinks-so did Noah ;-he swears-so do I; To reject him for such peccadillos, were odd; Besides, he repents for he talks about G**

[7o Jemmy]

Never hang down your head, you poor penitent elf, Come buss me I'll be Mrs. Twitcher myself.

SKETCH

OF

HIS OWN CHARACTER.

[This was written in 1761, and was found in one of his pocket-books.]

TOO poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune; He had not the method of making a fortune:

Could love, and could hate, so was thought somewhat

odd;

NO VERY GREAT WIT, HE BELIEV'D IN A GOD. A Post or a Pension he did not desire,

But left Church and State to Charles Townshend and

Squire [54].

[54] At that time Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and afterwards bishop of St. David's.