Though Whigs and Wits her origin suspected,
And still enquire by whom she's thus erected,
Faction, to shake her base, conspires in vain ;
A Deity she is, and must remain.

What though her brawny limbs, and stately size,
Taste, and vertù, and elegance despise,

To us her shape unzon'd, unclasp'd with boddice, And more than virgin stride, proclaim the Goddess*. S. To Dian's image thus, with pomp array'd,

Their glowing vows Ephesian zealots paid; Though conscious whence the fusile ore was brought, What craftsman's skill the ductile figure wrought, The work divine with transport they commended, Which, as they feign'd, from Jove himself descended. B. What Glory was, why seek her sons to know? See what alluring gifts she offers now!

Caps to the learn'd, a mitre to the sleek,

And white-glov'd Chaplain, who forgets his Greek;
To Heads, repose; to Bards, Parnassian bays;
To all, or worthy or unworthy, praise.

S. What mean those types that lurk beneath her feet,
Emblems ill-hid by ignorant deceit ?

What means that civic crown? Are these, rewards
For sage Divines, Philosophers, and Bards?

B. Nor smiles on these alone the Goddess; she,

Propitious Queen! some boon reserves for me.
If Annesley's friend †, who Learning's Giant slew,
A convert deem'd, preferr'd to honours new,
Laughs in his sleeves of lawn, and shakes his sides,
Eats, drinks, and marries, age, and care derides,

* Vera incessu patuit Dea.

VIRGIL.

+ Dr. Thomas Gooch, Master of Caius College. He was afterwards successively Bishop of Bristol, Norwich, and Ely, and was created a Baronet. He was Vice-chancellor when Dr. Bentley was degraded.

F 2

Why

Why may not I, by her caress inspir'd, By jovial port, and just ambition fir'd, Claim from her patroness an equal grace, And for a Headship change the Beadle's mace? S. Her gifts I envy not; but wonder more So partially she deals her bounty's store; HARDINGE, whose merit friends and foes confess'd, By her repulse defeated, sinks oppress'd *.

B. So perish all, who insolently dare,

Snatch'd from our champion's crest, a plume to wear!
Those frantic foes, who late, with towering pride,
The Church, the Prince, and Rutherforth defied,
Now in luxurious ease supinely sleep,

Nor discipline retain, nor vigils keep:
We, in firm phalanx join'd, a chosen few,
With scatter'd troops successful war renew ;
Rise by defeat, and, from the victor's brow,
Steal the fresh garland of his Delphic bough,
Triumphal wreaths around our temples twine,
And consecrate our spoils at Glory's shrine.
S. But what if Granta, rouz'd by honest shame,
Should haply wake, and vindicate her fame;
Precipitate this Demon from her throne,
And vengefully eject this load of stone!
B. Urg'd by unjust reproof, I shall unfold
A tale, perhaps not lawful to be told.
Her from the solid substance, vast and rude,
First into Fame a painful sculptor hew'd;
Her head a trumpet, wings her shoulders bore,

This wrinkled robe thus channel'd then she wore ;

*The Author of this Poem, and in jest the Hero of his own éloge, had a dispute at this time with the University respecting the non-performance of a Divinity exercise.

Deck'd

Deck'd with fit attributes in front and rear,
Expos'd to view, she charm'd a gazing Peer *;
Who only disapprov'd her wings and trump,
And made some small objections to the rump.
These faults corrected, straight at Canons rear'd,
Mix'd in a grove of statues she appear'd;
There Marlborough's form she lovingly beheld,
And, wreath'd for him, a civic chaplet held :
But when, invok'd by Cock's † enchanting tone,
As at Amphion's call, each sculptur'd stone
Obsequious trembled at his hammer's sound,
And fled, so summon'd, that unhappy ground,
A youth, to Phoebus, and the Muses dear,
At Granta's voice who lent the filial ear;
To her the destin'd gift this idol bought,
And at her feet his votive image brought,

In doubt at first, what Nymph's, what Heroine's name, What Queen's was best adapted to the Dame; At length, by vote unanimous, we made her A Sovereign Goddess, and as such display'd her: But, fearing lest the Senate should disown, As George's friends, his Adversary's stone, Inscrib'd with bits of verse, and scraps of prose, (The verse at least is classical) we chose To make and call her ACADEMIC GLORY, Still in disguise a Queen, and still a Tory. S. Approv'd the Senate this transfiguration, Or licens'd by decree the consecration? B. Not by decree; but when malignant WRAY §, Eager in hope, impatient of delay,

* Duke of Chandos.

+ Mr. Robert Cock, the celebrated Auctioneer of his day, was employed in the sale of Canons and its superb furniture, on the dilapidation of that magnificent mansion.

"Peter Burrell, Esq. of St. John's." Note of the Editor. The subject of these Memoirs.

A dapper,

66

A dapper, pert, loquacious, busy elf,

*More active for the publick than himself,

Ran to and fro with anxious looks, and prated,
And mov'd she might from hence be soon translated,
Dissenting from their friends, a wise majority
Supported us, and her, by their authority:
And who shall now remove her from the scene,
Or dare to drive her from the Muses?-S. Keene†.
So when the father of his country fled,
By fear of tribunitial rage misled,
On exil'd Cicero's devoted floor
Clodius uprais'd his Tanagræan whore :
Th' indignant Senate saw, with patriot eyes,
A harlot cloath'd in Liberty's disguise:
But, when again to Latian skies restor❜d,
Her joy and guardian grateful Rome ador'd,
Their antient seat, by her abode profan'd,
His household gods with dignity regain'd.

July 3, 1750, he writes thus to Mr. Yorke from Great Queen Street-" You know that the fate of Glory will rest upon the Graces of a Syndicate, which our friend Keene takes care so to compose as not to "contradict Hardinge's prophecy." Keene was then Vice-Chancellor; yet it should seem that his management could not avail him, and that Glory kept her seat, in which I left her. But I hear she has been lately removed into another academical place of honour, to make room for the late Mr. Pitt.

I come now to my first impression of Mr. WRAY.-When I was a boy, I often saw him

*The delicacy of this compliment, under a veil of ridicule, is beautiful.

+ Vice-chancellor in 1751; afterwards successively Bishop of Chester, and of Ely..

Filial partiality may have misled me; but I confess that few lines in Pope appear to me superior to these, which close the Dialogue, in Poetical fancy or Poetical expression.

at

at my Father's house. He was rather short, and stooped in his gesture. He looked an old man; and my Father said, he was born one, that he knew him in his teens not a day younger. He was rather shabbily appareled (but with constant regard for cleanliness), and his clothes appeared of some prior age; but his countenance was pleasing, and his mirth delightful to all ages. He had a fund of good-humour, and with a romping manner, half-riotous, he incorporated the soundest admonition. My parents having represented him to me as penurious, I had conceived, as boys naturally do, antipathy to him: but he disarmed it in three or four interviews; and I remember saying to my Father, "He never "gives me any thing; but he is clever, and so funny, "that I can't help loving him whether I will or no."

Once I recollect that I found him liberal to me, and was not a little proud of it, as an achievement of my own address, though it really was at least a fit

of his own munificence.

But I hasten to a revolution perhaps unparalleled, and at a period in which my intimate friendship with him commenced.

The recollection at this hour gives unqualified pleasure to me, except as far as it recalls the image of his perpetual indisposition. If there ever existed what has been miscalled a windfall, or a fairy's boon, but is in its true name a gift, and blessing of Providence, it was the wife he chose to gild the autumn of his years with a perpetual sun-beam. He was fifty-seven years of age; and whatever may have been the motive to his parsimony, or accumulating habits, they disappeared after this marriage, au coup de baguette, as the fairies, or fairy-fanciers, would say.

Mrs. Wray was daughter of Mr. Darell, a neighbour at Richmond, a gentleman who lived in a respectable privacy, and was affluent; but, having two sons, and another daughter, could make this match

no