Of every gleam of comfort. So the wretch,
Who near or Ætna or Vefuvius dwells,

Beholds the fulphurous flames, the molten rocks,
And feels the ground trembling beneath his feet,
'Till, with a horrid yawn, it opens wide
Before his eyes, all glaring with affright;
Swallows his cultur'd vines, his gardens, houfe,
With all his foul held dear, his lovely wife,
And prattling babes, the hopes of years to come;
All, all are lost, in ruin terrible!

NEW-MARKET.

H

A SATIRE.

IS country's hope, when now the blooming heir

Has left the parent's, or the guardian's care; Fond to poffefs, yet eager to deftroy,

Of each vain youth, fay, what's the darling joy?
Of each fond frolic what the fource and end,

His fole and first ambition what? to spend.
Some 'fquires, to Gallia's cooks moft dainty dupes,
Melt manors in ragouts, or drown in soups.
This coxcomb doats on fiddlers, till he fees
His mortgag'd mountains deftitute of trees;
Convinc'd too late, that modern strains can move,
With mightier force than thofe of Greece, the grove.
In headlefs ftatues rich, and ufelefs urns,

Marmoreo from the claffic tour returns;

So
poor
the wretch of current coin, you'd laugh-
He cares not-if his * Cæfars be but fafe.
Some tread the flippery paths of love's delights,
These deal the cards, or shake the box at White's.
To different pleasures different tastes incline,
Nor the fame fea receives the rushing fwine.
Tho' drunk alike with Circe's poisonous bowl,
In separate fties the mimic monsters roll.

Antique medals,

But

But would ye learn, ye leifure-loving 'fquires, How beft ye may difgrace your prudent fires; How fooneft foar to fafhionable shame,

Be damn'd at once to ruin-and to fame;
By hands of grooms ambitious to be crown'd,
O greatly dare to tread Olympic ground!
Where fam'd New-Market spreads her tempting
There let the chosen steed victorious ftrain; [plain,
Where not (as erft was fung in manly lays)

*

Men fly to different ends thro' different ways;
Thro' the fame path, to the fame gaol ye run,
And are, at once, undoing and undone.
Forfeit, forget friends, honour, and estate,
Lofe all at once- for what?-

-

to win the plate: All are betray'd, and all alike betray,

To your own beasts, Actæon-like, a prey.

What dreams of conqueft flush'd Hilario's breast, When the good knight at laft retir'd to reft! Behold the youth with new-felt rapture mark Each pleafing prospect of the spacious Park: That Park, where beauties undifguis'd engage, Those beauties lefs the work of art than age;

*Alluding to those well-known lines of Sir John Denham, in Cooper's Hill, on London.

66 -Thro' feveral ways they run,

"Some to undo, and fome to be undone."

In fimple state, where genuine Nature wears
Her venerable drefs of antient years;

Where all the charms of chance with order meet,
The rude, the gay, the graceful and the great.
Here aged oaks uprear their branches hoar,
And form dark groves, which Druids might adore;
Pride and support of Britain's conquering cross,
Which diftant ancestors faw crown'd with mofs:
With meeting boughs, and deepening to the view,
Here shoots the broad umbrageous avenue:
Here various trees compofe a chequer'd scene,
Glowing in gay diverfities of green:
There the full ftream, thro' intermingling glades,
Shines a broad lake, or falls in deep cafcades.
Nor wants there hazle copfe, or beechen lawn,
To cheer with fun or fhade the bounding fawn.

A

And fee the good old feat, whofe Gothic towers Awful emerge from yonder tufted bowers; Whofe rafter'd hall the crouding tenants fed, And dealt to Age and Want their daily bread: Where garter'd knights, with peerless beauties At high and folemn feftivals have din'd; Presenting oft fair virtue's fhining task, In myftic pageantries, and moral * masque.

[join'd,

But

It was a fashionable practice among our antient nobility and gentry, of both fexes, to perform ¡erforally in entertain

ments

But vain all antient praife, or boaft of birth,
Vain all the palms of old heroic worth!
At once a bankrupt, and a profperous heir,
Hilario bets Park, house dissolve in air.

With antique armour hung, high trophied rooms
Descend to gamefters, prostitutes, and grooms.
He fees his fteel-clad fires, and mothers mild,
Who bravely shook the lance, or fweetly fmil'd,
All the fair feries of the whisker'd race,
Whofe pictur'd forms the ftately gallery grace,
Debas'd, abus'd, the price of ill-got gold,
To deck fome tavern vile, at auctions fold.
The parish wonders at th' unopening door,
The chimnies blaze, the tables groan no more.
Thick weeds around th' untrodden courts arife,
And all the focial scene in filence lies.
Himfelf, the lofs politely to repair,

Turns atheift, fiddler, highwayman, or player.
At length, the fcorn, the shame of Man and God,
Is deem'd to rub the fteeds that once he rode.

Ye rival youths, your golden hopes how vain, Your dreams of thousands on the lifted plain!

ments of this kind. Nothing could be a more delightful or rational method of spending an evening than this. Milton's Comus was thus exhibited at Ludlow-Caftle, in the year 1631. See Ben Johnson's Mafques.

Not