Upon the Duke of MARLBOROUGH'S Houfe at Woodstock.

Atria longè patent ; fed nec cœnantibus ufquam,
Nec fomno locus eft: quàm bene non habites!
MART. Epig.

SEE, Sir, here's the grand approach,
This way is for his Grace's coach;
There lies the bridge, and here's the clock,
Obferve the lion and the cock,

The fpacious court, the colonnade,
And mark how wide the hall is made!
The chimneys are fo well defign'd,
They never smoke in any wind.
This gallery's contriv'd for walking,
The windows to retire and talk in ;
The council-chamber for debate,
And all the reft are rooms of state.

Thanks, Sir, cry'd I, 'tis very fine,

But where d'ye sleep, or where d'ye dine?
I find by all you have been telling,

That 'tis a house, but not a dwelling *.

NOTES.

• The fame idea is ufed by Lord Chesterfield in his Epigram on Burlington House:

"How well you build, let flatt'ry tell;

And all mankind, how ill you dwell!"

Verfes left by Mr. POPE, on his lying in the fame Bed which WILMOT, the celebrated Earl of ROCHESTER, Лlept in, at Adderbury, then belonging to the Duke of ARGYLE, July 9th, 1739.

WITH
ITH no poetic ardour fir'd

I prefs the bed where Wilmot lay;
That here he lov'd, or here expir'd,
Begets no numbers grave, or gay.

Beneath thy roof, Argyle, are bred

Such thoughts as prompt the brave to lie Stretch'd out in honour's nobler bed, Beneath a nobler roof-the sky.

Such flames as high in patriots burn

Yet ftoop to bless a child or wife; And fuch as wicked kings may mourn, When freedom is more dear than life.

T°

THE CHALLENGE.

A COURT BALLAD.

To the Tune of "To all you Ladies now at Land, &c.”

I.

one fair lady out of court,
And two fair ladies in,

Who think the Turk* and Popet a sport,
And wit and love no fin;

Come, these foft lines, with nothing stiff in,
To Bellenden, Lepell, and Griffin.

With a fa, la, la.

NOTES.

* Warton has a note upon these words, "Urick, the little Turk.” One is tempted to fay, in the language of the Author of the Critic, "The interpreter is the hardest to be underflood of the two." The expreffion of the "Turk and the Pope," is very common; it is here applied equivocally, to the author, and perhaps to one of the Turks, who came to England with George the First. †The Author.

II. What

Mifs Lepell has been spoken of before. Mary Bellenden, the most beautiful and lovely woman of her time, maid of honour to Caroline when Princefs of Wales, was daughter of Lord Bellenden. She is thus defcribed, fays Mr. Coxe, in an old ballad, made upon the quarrel between George the First and the Prince of Wales at the chriflening, when the Prince and all his household were ordered to quit St. James's:

"But Bellenden we needs muft praise,
Who, as down ftairs the jumps,

Sings, "Over Hills, and far away,"
Defpifing doleful dumps."

This lovely and elegant woman rejected the addrefies of the Prince, and elpoufed in 1720 John Campbell then groom of the bed chamber to the Prince of Wales, and afterwards Duke of Argyle. See Coxe's Memoirs.

II.

What paffes in the dark third row,
And what behind the fcene,
Couches and crippled chairs I know,

And garrets hung with green;
I know the fwing of finful hack,
Where damfels
many
cry alack.
With a fa, la, la.

III.

Then why to courts fhould I repair,
Where's fuch ado with Townshend?
To hear each mortal stamp and swear,

And ev'ry speech with Zounds end;
To hear 'em rail at honest Sunderland,
And rafhly blame the realm of Blunderland*.
With a fa, la, la.

IV.

Alas! like Schutz I cannot pun,
Like Grafton court the Germans;

Tell Pickenbourg how flim fhe's grown,
Like Meadows† run to fermons ;
To court ambitious men may roam,
But I and Marlbro' stay at home.
With a fa, la, la.

NOTES.

* Ireland.

+ Mentioned before in the Verses to Mrs. Howe.

V. In

V.

In truth, by what I can discern,

Of courtiers 'twixt you three,
Some wit you have, and more may learn

From court, than Gay or Me:
Perhaps, in time, you'll leave high diet,
To fup with us on milk and quiet.
With a fa, la, la.

VI.

At Leicester-Fields, a house full high,
With door all painted green,
Where ribbons wave upon the tye,

(A Milliner I mean;)

There may you meet us three to three,
For Gay can well make two of Me.
With a fa, la, la.

VII.

But fhou'd you catch the prudish itch,
And each become a coward,
Bring fometimes with you lady Rich*,
And fometimes miftrefs Howard +;
For virgins to keep chaste must go
Abroad with fuch as are not fo.

With a fa, la, la.

VIII. And

NOTES.

• Lady Rich was a correfpondent of Lady M. W. Montagu. + Mrs. Howard, miftrefs to George II. afterwards Countess of Suffolk. See "Verfes to a Lady at Court," in this Volume.