University of Virginia Library

An Epistle to the Rev. Mr. W--- L---

By Way of Invitation.

Most reverend sir, if you can spare
An hour, from sacerdotal care;
Before the morrow sun shall set,
The knight, and you and I, will wet
Our thirsty throats, with humming beer;
Or better, chuse you better cheer:
You know I cannot stir abroad,
And you will find in this abode,
The juice of Lusitanian wine,
(I hate French laces, and French wine)
Or arrack, from Batavia's shore,
Right neat, as when 'twas first brought o'er;
Haply you'll find a little rum,
From fam'd Jamaica lately come;
With which we may cook up a liquor,
Seldom displeasing to a vicar;
Then, by sagacious argument,
We'll settle how elections went;
Prove cits or peers, are ninnyhammers,
Who 'gainst the Jew-bill made such clamors;
Puzzle o'er Canning's strange affair;
For, spite of good Sir Gascoign's care,
We're not much wiser than we were;
Thence will we pass to France and Spain,
To see if war or peace they mean;
Or only to invest the city,
Possess'd by Algerine banditti:
On these, or other subjects fit,
Or high, or low, nor thought of yet,
We'll chat a while, or grave, or gay—
So brush your bever, and away.