Such was the time when Kelly's Lord
The Calais Pacquet ftepp'd aboard;
The Peer display'd a flush of face,
That might a Paris Duchefs grace,
Embofom'd deep in ev'ry dimple,
There fiery gleam'd a purple pimple,
Like Summer cloud that lightning vomits,
Or fkies at night that blaze with comets ;
Curious with carbuncle and ruby,
Not like a whey-fac'd milk-fop booby,
That looks inanimate and filly,
And languid as a drooping lilly:
No-the red grape, or damask'd rose,
Vivid upon his vifage glows;
His jolly countenance look'd big,
All elegant with Gallic wig,
To decorate the head of Earl,
Wig ne'er difplay'd fo fweet a curl;
All other wigs to this muft truckle,
And hide in papillotes their buckle;
A compofition rich and rare,
Pomatum, fcented-powder, hair:
"A combination and a form”
Might foften rocks, or calm a storm!
Such was the wig, and fuch the curl;-
When lo! the tars the fails unfurl,
Light o'er the billows bounds the skiff,
And shapes her courfe tow'rds Dover Cliff.
Mean time the gale blows loud and ftrong,
Mix'd with the fcreaming Curlew's fong;
The ftorm with ten-fold fury raves,
And fwells to tumult all the waves;
Still thro' the wild, impetuous furges,
All desperate her way he urges,
And proudly fwims a very duck,
Till on a a fhelving fand the ftruck:
Each paffenger with terror faints,
Pale fear each rueful vifage paints,
They tremble left they find a pillow
In each obftrep'rous, dafhing billow;
The mind of Kelly spurns at Fate,
Collected all, and all fedate,
He bears for bravery and the palm,
All storm without, within all calm.
Tho' ev'ry hair hangs loofe and lank,
Or like fome weeping willow dank;
Altho' his wig be drench'd with brine,
He fcorns ignobly to repine.-
Such courage charms the pow'rs above,
So off again the bark they shove;
Green Nereids gaily round her fport,
And point the way to Dover's port;
The drooping crew with fongs they footh,
And all the ruffled deep they smooth;
The moon restrains the fwelling tides,
The howling hurricane fubfides.
In ancient story thus I've found,
That no Mufician e'er was drown'd;
A harp was then, or I mistake it,
Much better than the beft cork-jacket;
The Grecian harpers went abroad,
The lockers well with liquor ftor'd;
For harpers ever had a thirst,
Since harping was invented first.
They in the cabbin fat a drinking,
Till the poor fhip was almoft finking;
Then running nimbly to the poop,
They gave the scaly brood a whoop;
And, fudden as they form'd the wish,
For ev'ry harper came a fish ;
Then o'er the briny billows fcudding,
They car'd for drowning not a pudding.-
Methinks, my Lord, with cheek of rose,
I fee you mount your bottle nose;
Or firmly holding by a whole fin,
Ride degagé upon your dolphin.
'Twas thus the tuneful Peer of Kelly
Escap'd fome whale's enormous belly;
And, fafe in London thinks no longer,
He'll prove a feast for shark or conger.
Quid vento levius? Pulvis. Quid pulvere? Pluma.
Quid pluma? Mulier. Quid muliere? Nihil.
Duft's lighter than the wind-than duft a feather;
But Woman's lighter than all thefe together.
THE Ladies have brought in feathers again with the Winter and the woodcocks. The Philofopher's description of an human creature, animal bipes implume," a two-legg'd, unfeathered animal," is no longer applicable to our women; and the men have nothing to do, in order to destroy the definition on their part, but to follow Rouffeau's system, and to walk upon all-fours.
The female fex feem at prefent to wish to be confidered as a collection of all the birds in the air. Some few fing in a cage; many entertain us with their wild notes: and most of them give us to underftand, that any violence offered to them, is a kind of petty-offence, not so punishable as robbing a henrooft.
In complaifance to the Ladies, I have fometimes amufed myself with following the train in which
they have appeared defirous to lead us. When I fee the black feathers of a widow, I confider them as emblems of the plumes nodding over the hearfe of her late husband, confequently as a notice that there is room for another; and when I behold the white feathers on the head of an unmarried Lady, I interpret them as the triumph of a young innocent on being just fledged, or, perhaps, as an intimation from fome more knowing fair-one, of the deceafe of her virginity. The high top of a stately Woman of Quality in the fide-box, has more than once reminded me of the peacock; while the fhauls and varied plumage of the East-India Directors' Ladies in the front, have brought to my imagination the idea of Chinese peasants and Bantams. The female birds of prey in other parts of the Theatre, with their keen eyes, have put me in mind of hawks, eagles, and vultures; and the more common fort in the gree 1boxes, I have compared to Guinea hens; and upon feeing Prince Orlow at the play, fome time ago, while I was indulging thefe fpeculations, I could not help thinking of his gallant mifirefs, who is faid to have a stomach capable of digefting lead and iron, and of course resembling her to an ostrich.
Having once fallen into this vein, it is impoffible to go to a route, or into any numerous affembly, without converting the feathers of the daughters of VOL. VI. goffipping,
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