Neptune was he call'd, not He
Who controls the boist'rous sea,
But of happier command,
Neptune of the furrow'd land;
And your wonder vain to shorten,
Pointer to Sir John Throckmorton.

EPITAPH ON FOP,

A DOG BELONGING TO LADY THROCKMORTON.

[August, 1792.]

THOUGH Once a puppy, and though Fop by name, Here moulders One whose bones some honour claim. No sycophant, although of spaniel race,

And though no hound, a martyr to the chase

Ye squirrels, rabbits, leverets, rejoice,

Your haunts no longer echo to his voice;
This record of his fate exulting view,
He died worn out with vain pursuit of you.

"Yes" the indignant shade of fop replies"And worn with vain pursuit Man also dies."

SONNET,

ΤΟ

GEORGE ROMNEY, ESQ.

ON

His picture of me in Crayons, drawn at Eartham in the 61st year of my age, and in the months of August and September [1792.]

[October, 1792.]

ROMNEY, expert infallibly to trace

On chart or canvass, not the form alone And semblance, but, however faintly shown, The mind's impression too on every faceWith strokes that time ought never to erase.

Thou hast so pencill'd mine, that though I own The subject worthless, I have never known The artist shining with superior grace.

But this I mark-that symptoms none of wo
In thy incomparable work appear.
Well-I am satisfied it should be so,

Since, on maturer thought, the cause is clear;

For in my looks what sorrow couldst thou see
When I was Haley's guest, and sat to Thee?

ON

RECEIVING HAYLEY'S PICTURE.

[January, 1793.]

IN language warm as could be breath'd or penn'd, Thy picture speaks th' Original my Friend, Not by those looks that indicate thy mindThey only speak thee Friend of all mankind; Expression here more soothing still I see, That Friend of all a partial Friend to me.

EPITAPH

ON

MR. CHESTER, OF CHICHELEY.

[April, 1793.]

TEARS flow, and cease not, where the good man lies, Till all who knew him follow to the skies.

Tears therefore fall where Chester's ashes sleep; Him wife, friends, brothers, children, servants, weepAnd justly-few shall ever him transcend

As husband, parent, brother, master, friend.

ON

A PLANT OF VIRGIN'S BOWER,

DESIGNED TO COVER A GARDEN-SEAT.

[Spring of 1793.]

THRIVE gentle plant! and weave a bow'r
For Mary and for me,

And deck with many a splendid flow'r
Thy foliage large and free.

Thou cam'st from Eartham, and wilt shade (If truly I divine)

Some future day th' illustrious head

Of Him who made thee mine.

Should Daphne show a jealous frown,
And Envy seize the Bay,
Affirming none so fit to crown
Such honour'd brows as they,

Thy cause with zeal we shall defend,
And with convincing pow'r ;
For why should not the Virgin's Friend
Be crown'd with Virgin's bow'r?

T 2

TO MY COUSIN,

ANNE BODHAM,

ON

Receiving from her a Network Purse, made by herself. [May 4, 1793.]

My gentle Anne, whom heretofore,
When I was young, and thou no more
Than plaything for a nurse,

I danc'd and fondled on my knee,
A kitten both in size and glee,
I thank thee for my purse.

Gold pays the worth of all things here;
But not of love;-that gem's too dear
For richest rogues to win it;

I, therefore, as a proof of love,
Esteem thy present far above

The best things kept within it.

INSCRIPTION

For an Hermitage in the Author's Garden.

[May, 1793.]

THIS cabin, Mary, in my sight appears,
Built, as it has been, in our waning years,