But weavers will be kinder to the players,
And sell for twenty pence a yard of theirs.
And, to your knowledge, there is often less in
The poet's wit, than in the player's dressing.

THE COUNTRY LIFE.

PART OF A SUMMER SPENT AT GAULS TOWN HOUSE, THE SEAT OF GEORGE ROCH FORT, ESQ.

THALIA, tell in sober lays,

HowGeorge*, Nim, Dant, Dean §, pass their days; And, should our Gaulstown's art grow fallow,

Yet Neget quis carmina Gallo?

Here (by the way) by Gallus mean I

Not Sheridan, but friend Delany.
Begin, my Muse. First from our bowers
We sally forth at different hours;
At seven the Dean, in night gown drest,
Goes round the house to wake the rest;
At nine, grave Nim and George facetious
Go to the Dean, to read Lucretius;
At ten, my Lady comes and hectors,
And kisses George, and ends our lectures;
And when she has him by the neck fast,
Hals him, and scolds us down to breakfast.
We squander there an hour or more,
And then all hands, boys, to the oar;

Mr. Rochfort.

5

ΙΟ

15

His brother, Mr. John Rochfort; who was called Nimrod, from his great attachment to the chace.

Rev. Daniel Jackson.

§ Dr. Swift.

All,

All, heteroclite Dan except,
Who neither time nor order kept,
But, by peculiar whimsies drawn,
Peeps in the ponds to look for spawn;
O'ersees the work, or Dragon * rows,
Or mars a text, or mends his hose;
Or- but proceed we in our journal

At two, or after, we return all:

From the four elements assembling,

Warn'd by the bell, all folks come trembling:

From airy garrets some descend,

Some from the lake's remotest end:

20

25

30

My lord and dean the fire forsake,

Dan leaves the earthy spade and rake:
The loiterers quake, no corner hides them,
And lady Betty soundly chides them.

Now water's brought, and dinner's done :

35

With "Church and King" the ladies gone:
Not reckoning half an hour we pass

In talking o'er a moderate glass.

Dan, growing drowsy, like a thief

Steals off to dose away his beef;

40

And this must pass for reading Hamond

While George and Dean go to backgammon.
George, Nim, and Dean, set out at four,
And then again, boys, to the oar.
But when the sun goes to the deep

45

(Not to disturb him in his sleep,

* A small boat so called.

+ The dean has been censured, on an idle supposition of this passage being an allusion to the day of judgment.

Mr. Rochfort's father was lord chief baron of the exchequer

in Ireland.

Or

Or make a rumbling o'er his head,
His candle out, and he abed)

We watch his motions to a minute,

in it.

50

And leave the flood when he
goes
Now stinted in the shortening day,
We go to prayers, and then to play,
Till supper comes; and after that
We sit an hour to drink and chat.
'Tis late-the old and younger pairs,
By Adam * lighted, walk up stairs.

The weary
And Nim and Dan to garret clamber.
So when the circle we have run,
The curtain falls, and all is done.

Dean goes to his chamber;

I might have mention'd several facts,
Like episodes between the acts;
And tell who loses and who wins,
Who gets a cold, who breaks his shins;
How Dan caught nothing in his net,
And how the boat was overset.
For brevity I have retrench'd

How in the lake the dean was drench'd:

It would be an exploit to brag on,

55

60

65

How valiant George rode o'er the Dragon;

70

How steady in the storm he sat,

And sav'd his oar, but lost his hat:

How Nim (no hunter e'er could match him)

Still brings us hares, when he can catch 'em:
How skilfully Dan mends his nets;

75

How fortune fails him when he sets;

Or how the Dean delights to vex

The ladies, and lampoon their sex:

The butler.

I might

I might have told how oft dean Percival
Displays his pedantry unmerciful,
How haughtily he cocks his nose,
To tell what every schoolboy knows:
And with his finger and his thumb,
Explaining, strikes opposers dumb:

But now there needs no more be said on 't,
Nor how his wife, that female pedant,
Shows all her secrets of housekeeping;
For candles how she trucks her dripping;
Was forc'd to send three miles for yeast,
To brew her ale, and raise her paste;
Tells every thing that you can think of,
How she cur'd Charly of the chin cough;
What gave her brats and pigs the measles,

And how her doves were kill'd by weasles;

How Jowler howl'd, and what a fright

She had with dreams the other night.

But now, since I have gone so far on,

A word or two of lord chief baron;
And tell how little weight he sets
On all whig papers and gazettes;
But for the politicks of Pue,

Thinks every syllable is true.

80

85

90

95

100

And since he owns the king of Sweden

105

Is dead at last, without evading,

Now all his hopes are in the czar:

66

Why, Muscovy is not so far:

"Down the Black Sea, and up the Straits,
"And in a month he's at your gates;
"Perhaps, from what the packet brings,
"By Christmas we shall see strange things."

* See the dean's letter to Mr. Cope, Oct. 9, 1722.

IIO

Why

Why should I tell of ponds and drains,
What carps we met with for our pains;
Of sparrows tam'd, and nuts innumerable

To choke the girls, and to consume a rabble?
But you, who are a scholar, know

How transient all things are below,
How prone to change is human life!
Last night arriv'd Clem* and his wife-
This grand event has broke our measures;
Their reign began with cruel seizures:
The dean must with his quilt supply
The bed in which those tyrants lie:
Nim lost his wig block, Dan his jordan,
(My lady says, she can't afford one)
George is half scar'd out of his wits,

For Clem gets all the dainty bits.
Henceforth expect a different survey,
This house will soon turn topsyturvy:

115

120

125

They talk of farther alterations,

Which causes many speculations.

130

THOMAS SHERIDAN, CLERK, TO GEORGE-NIM-DAN-DE AN, ESQ.

July 15, 1721, at night.

I'D have you t' know, George, Dan, Dean §,

and Nim,

That I've learned how verse t' compose trim,

* Mr. Clement Barry.

+ Gec. Rochfort.

Mr. Jackson.

Mr. J. Rochfort.

§ Dr. Swift.