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The Poetical Works of the Late Thomas Warton

... Fifth Edition, Corrected and Enlarged. To which are now added Inscriptionum Romanarum Delectus, and An Inaugural Speech As Camden Professor of History, never before published. Together with Memoirs of his Life and Writings; and Notes, Critical and Explanatory. By Richard Mant

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FOR THE YEAR 1770.
  

FOR THE YEAR 1770.

As now petitions are in fashion
With the first patriots of the nation;
In spirit high, in pocket low,
We patriots of the Butcher-Row,
Thus, like our Betters, ask redress
For high and mighty grievances,

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Real, tho' penn'd in rhyme, as those
Which oft our Journal gives in prose:—
“Ye rural 'Squires, so plumb and sleek,
“Who study—Jackson, once a week;
“While now your hospitable board
“With cold sirloin is amply stor'd,
“And old October, nutmeg'd nice,
“Send us a tankard and a slice!
“Ye country Parsons, stand our friends,
“While now the driving sleet descends!
“Give us your antiquated canes,
“To help us through the miry lanes;
“Or with a rusty grizzle wig
“This Christmas deign our pates to rig.
“Ye noble gem'men of the Gown,
“View not our verses with a frown!
“But, in return for quick dispatches,
“Invite us to your buttery-hatches!
“Ye too, whose houses are so handy,
“For coffee, tea, rum, wine, and brandy;
“Pride of fair Oxford's gawdy streets,
“You too our strain submissive greets!
“Hear Horseman, Spindlow, King, and Harper!
“The weather sure was never sharper:—

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“Matron of Matrons, Martha Baggs!
“Dram your poor Newsman clad in rags!
“Dire mischiefs folks above are brewing,
“The Nation's—and the Newsman's ruin;—
“'Tis yours our sorrows to remove;
“And if thus generous ye prove,
“For friends so good we're bound to pray
“Till—next returns a New-year's Day!”
“Giv'n at our melancholy cavern,
“The cellar of the Sheep's-Head Tavern.”