Now mistress Gilpin, when she saw Her husband posting down Into the country far away, She pull'd out half a crown; And thus unto the youth she said, That drove them to the Bell, This shall be yours, when you bring back My husband safe and well. The youth did ride, and soon did meet But not performing what he meant, Away went Gilpin, and away The postboy's horse right glad to miss Six gentlemen upon the road, With postboy scamp'ring in the rear, Stop thief! stop thief!-a highwayman! And all and each that pass'd that way And now the turnpike gates again And so he did, and won it too, Nor stopp'd till where he had got up Now let us sing, long live the king, And Gilpin long live he; And, when he next doth ride abroad, May I be there to see! AN EPISTLE ΤΟ AN AFFLICTED PROTESTANT LADY IN FRANCE MADAM, A STRANGER'S purpose in these lays The path of sorrow, and that path alone, Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown; No trav❜ller ever reach'd that blest abode, Who found not thorns and briers in his road. The World may dance along the flow'ry plain, Cheer'd as they go by many a sprightly strain, Where Nature has her mossy velvet spread, With unshod feet they yet securely tread, Admonish'd, scorn the caution and the friend, Bent all on pleasure, heedless of its end. But he, who knew what human hearts would prove How slow to learn the dictates of his love, EPISTLE TO A LADY IN FRANCE. That, hard by nature and of stubborn will, To rescue from the ruins of mankind, 315 Call'd for a cloud to darken all their years, O salutary streams, that murmur there! Ah, be not sad, although thy lot be cast Far from the flock, and in a boundless waste! No shepherd's tents within thy view appear, But the chief Shepherd even there is near; Thy tender sorrows and thy plaintive strain Flow in a foreign land, but not in vain; Thy tears all issue from a source divine, And ev'ry drop bespeaks a Saviour thineSo once in Gideon's fleece the dews were found, And drought on all the drooping herbs around. ΤΟ THE REV. W. CAWTHORNE UN WIN. I. UNWIN, I should but ill repay The kindness of a friend, As ever Friendship penn'd, Thy name omitted in a page, That would reclaim a vicious age. II. A union form'd, as mine with thee, Not rashly, or in sport, May be as fervent in degree, And faithful in its sort, And may as rich in comfort prove, III. The bud inserted in the rind, |