An Antient Historical Family Ballad, on what once befel a memorable four-footed Matron at H the famous County of Bucks.
BY THE REV. MOSES BROWNE*,
Puss, the prime princess of her pack,
The loveliest piece of white and black
Of all the purring kind;
Her fur was gloss'd with sable-jet
And Ermine-snow: Disaster yet
May royal beauty find!
"Twas on a day, ill-destined sure!
No day is Man or Cat secure-
She left her Guardian's lap ;
The rooms wide-wandering unrestrain'd
She came, for so the Fates ordain'd,
Where stood a baited trap.
Of guile-laid cheese to rob the gin,
Too far she taps her paw within,
Up flew the treacherous spring;
Mice that peep'd squinting from their holes
Could not help shouting from their souls
Huzza! boys, save the King!
Formerly Minister of Olney in Buckinghamshire, and knowK by some poetical productions,
Humbugg'd, and vex'd, you well may think,
Scoff'd Knaptoe could but sit and blink
In patience as became her;
Her ruminating mind grew sad,
Disgrace so foul might have drove mad
A cat less wise though tamer.
Her face she cunningly compos'd,
Sat still, look'd prim, as if she doz'd,
The more her shame to smother;
Yet whisp'ring, bloodily she swore,
Ye dogs and ev'ry vermin whore,
I'll mark you, son and mother!
Ah! Puss, with cheese no more make free,
My moral catterwauls to thee,
And thus in mercy cries out-
Had these scrub pesterers of the house
The heart or courage of a louse,
Zooks! they'd have claw'd thy eyes out.
HERE lies the father of taxation:
May Heaven, his faults forgiving,
Grant him repose; which he, while living,
Would never grant the nation.
Originally written for Inscription in a Country Residence in the Vicinity of Dublin.
O Rus, tandem ego te aspicio, tandemque licebit
Nunc veterum libris, nunc somno et inertibus horis,
Ducere sollicitæ jucunda oblivia vitæ !
The original intention of the writer was confined to a simple trans lation of the quotation from Horace which is given as the motto, for the purpose of inscription in an octagon building in a favourite recess of his grounds. Failing to satisfy himself in this design, his ideas extended to a short paraphrase; but the result of his change of plan will be found in the present pub. lication. The circumstance is mentioned as accounting for the form of address which the composition assumes, as well as some other peculiarities of manner, which it has not been deemed essential to remove.
BIDST thou me welcome still, glad seat of ease!
And breathe thy shades their hallowed power to please,
As still my fond wish woos their covert blest,
And deeply heart-lov'd feels thy home of rest!
What tho' not thine the boast of wide domain,
Nor gorgeous wonder stablish here her reign;
Tho' not for thee Creation's proud array;
For thee nor Ocean waves expand their sway,
Nor o'er thy head in mad disorder wild
And savage waste the eternal granite pil'd;
For thee no sweep of frowning forest near,
No devious wizard haunt of gloom and fear;
Not thine the giddy heights, the headlong steeps,
Nor chasms that shuddering yawn to midnight deeps;
Fantastic scenes! with living force imprest
Of mystic influence o'er the human breast!
Nor these high honors thine! oh barely free
From City concourse and from rabble glee!
Free from the clouded dust, the clattering noise
Of City parties and their Sunday joys;
The scenes where ceaseless throng, at wealth's loud call,
The brick-red villa and the sad stone wall:
Scap'd too from City taste! whose meddling hand
With cumbrous frippery deforms the land,
Marshals its mimic gauds in dull parade,
Its vamp'd up brick-pool and spruce starv'd cascade;
Bids Chinese bridge or Chinese temple flare,
Or old-new Gothic nick-nack rise in air;
Nor knows the country its primæval green,
While envious masonry usurps the scene!
Yet peace to such! nor heeds thy just disdain
These labour'd whimsies of the sons of gain.
Not here intrudes their sad tumultuous care,
Nor frivolous joys thy bosom'd quiet share.
For has not nature's self here rais'd her shrine ?
Breathes not around thee all her calm benign?
Her steps of peace serenest raptures trace,
And thrilling airs her living presence grace.
Wide spread, behold! for thee her various stores
With fond munificence profuse she pours;
O'er thy loved home her emerald mantle throws,
While woods sequestering veil its soft repose;
Or bold contrasting swells the russet train
Of uncouth downs or rudely wild champaign,
Where not a tree o'erlooks the expanse austere,
And not a sound breaks on its peace severe,
Save, simplest sounds! the sheep-bell's tinkling call,
Or insect hum, or streamlet's rippling fall;
A world of solitude! whose large control
To thrill extatic wakes the accordant soul.
No envious fence here checks the excursive range,
As gathering round successive glories change,
Far as yon triple cloud-topt rock* ascends,
Or lengthening mountain range still onward bends,
O'er wastes where erst my loitering youth has strayed 55
To trace each wild recess, each devious glade,
Each witching charm of Wicklow's fairy reign,
Each thrilling maze of Powerscourt's proud domain,
Each heath-clad steep that Liffey's fountain crowns,
Each fearful cliff whose lowering menace frowns
O'er the wild lake + beneath far shadowed deep,
And guards the horrors of its awful sleep:
Qr in fond change, to gaze with searching eyes
Where northern Mourne's bleak forms aspiring rise,
Or thwart the ocean waste, mark Snowdon rear
His hoary mass mid the blue fields of air
Distinct, with mighty nameless summits more,
That watch sublime the British sister shore.
Ye long-lost joys of no inactive ease!
Dreams of romance! your raptures still can please,
Three-rock Mountain.
Lough Bray, Luggellaw, Glandelough, &c,
|