INSCRIPTIONS,
SEALED UP AND INCLOSED IN NET LETTER-CASES,
PRESENTED TO THE
CHARITABLE REPOSITORY AT LICHFIELD.
TO THE YOUNG MARRIED LADY WHO HUMANELY
PURCHASES THIS TRIFLE.
SEPTEMBER 1800.
If, gentle Lady, thou hast paid
Thy faithful vows at Hymen's shrine,
Oft in these silken folds be laid
Each tender animated line,
Which absent Love sincerely pours
As business urges forc'd delay;
Kind sun-beams of the winter'd hours,
When thy dear Lord is far away.
And, gentle Lady, round thy knees
Do blooming infants gaily sport,
With duteous smiles essay to please,
With lifted eyes thy favour court?
O! may their virtues noon-tide rays,
That now, in Life's fresh morning dawn,
Illuminate thy waning days,
When Time's dim veils are o'er thee drawn!
TO THE YOUNG UNMARRIED LADY, WHO PURCHASES ME.
SEPTEMBER 1800.
Sweet maid, is thy soft, snowy hand
Unplighted yet, and gaily free?
O may thy graces soon command
A power, that shall resemble me!
Since me a silken cage thou'lt find
For all thy future swains fond letters,
And may thy charms his wishes bind
In as indissoluble fetters!
And when, enamour'd, he shall yield
All power his freedom to regain,
With sense, and smiles, and virtue, gild
His viewless, but eternal chain!
LYDIA LETTER-CASE.
TO THE LADY,
WHETHER SINGLE OR MARRIED, WHO SHALL CHARITABLY
PURCHASE THIS TRIFLE.
SEPTEMBER 1800.
If, Lady, thou art fair, take heed, I pray,
That more than charms exterior round thee play!
Each sun, that looks on Beauty, wastes her power,
E'en as it feeds, and fades, the summer flower;
Then O! collect, against such failing sway,
Charms of the mind, that fear no pale decay;
And, as the holly's cluster'd berries rise
Bright in the year's dim wane, and icy skies,
So may those charms, when fled thy youthful prime,
Glow with gay strength amid the snows of time!
TO THE LADY
WHO MAY PURCHASE THIS ENVELOPE, AND WHO MAY
NOT BE A CELEBRATED BEAUTY.
SEPTEMBER 1800.
In courts and balls each undistinguish'd face,
Boasting nor Hebe's bloom, nor Helen's grace,
To no more purpose of delight is there,
Than to enhance the triumphs of the fair;
Obscured, near Beauty's shining forms to stray,
As moon and stars around the sun by day;
Or by that homage find their pride sustain'd
Which their eclipsing rivals had disdain'd;
The wretched gleanings, with tired hand, to rake,
And insincere attention give and take.
But O! if thine the Mind's true charms appear,
To dazzling Beauty leave her proper sphere;
Unenvying leave her to her transient sway,
The speedy darkning of her solar ray!
Thou, in thy milder orb—of private life,
As duteous Daughter, and endearing Wife,
Kind Sister, gentle Mistress, faithful Friend,
Shalt find with Life alone thy empire end!
TO THE DOWAGER LADY BLAKISTON,
WITH A LETTER-CASE.
Conscious that she, whose hand these nets enwove,
Honour'd the virtuous man,
who once was thine,
Permit the precious scriptures of his love
Here in their folds to find a faithful shrine!
O! to the treasur'd sorrows of thy breast
May future years no sad accession bring,
But comfort, peace, and resignation blest,
Fall on thy heart from Time's unpausing wing,
Till late it shall present the final day,
From mortal bonds that sets thee ever free,
And calls to his thy willing soul away,
Who once an Eden made this earth to thee.
