ON GAULSTOWN HOUSE.
BY DR. DELANY*.

TIS fo old, and fo ugly, and yet so convenient, You 're fometimes in pleasure, though often in pain in 't.

'Tis so large you may lodge a few friends with ease in't. You may turn and stretch at your length if you please in 't;

'Tis fo little, the family live in a prefs in 't, And poor lady Betty + has scarce room to dress in 't; 'Tis fo cold in the winter, you can't bear to lie in 't, And fo hot in the fummer, you 're ready to fry in't; 'Tis fo brittle 'twould scarce bear the weight of a tun, Yet so staunch, that it keeps out a great deal of fun; 'Tis so crazy, the weather with ease beats quite

through it,

And you're forc'd every year in some part to renew it, 'Tis fo ugly, fo useful, fo big, and so little, 'Tis so staunch, and fo crazy, so strong, and so brittle, 'Tis at one time fo hot, and another fo cold, It is part of the new, and part of the old; It is just half a bleffing, and just half a curfeI with then, dear George, it were better or worse.

* The feat of George Rochfort, efq. (father to the earl of Belvidere); where Dr. Swift and an agreeable fett of friends fpent part of the fummer of 1721.

† Daughter to the earl of Drogheda, and the wife of Mr. Rochfort.

THE

THE

COUNTRY-LIFE.

Part of a Summer spent at GAULSTOWN-HOUSE.

THALIA, tell in fober lays,

How George, Nim†, Dan I, Dean §, pass their days;

And, should our Gaulflown's art grow fallow,
Yet Neget quis carmina Gallo?
Here (by the way) by Gallus mean I
Not Sheridan, but friend Delany.

Begin, my Muse. First from our bowers
We fally forth at different hours;
At seven the Dean, in night-gown dreft,
Goes round the house to wake the reft;
At nine, grave Nim and George facetious
Go to the Dean, to read Lucretius;
At ten, my Lady comes and hectors,
And kiffes George, and ends our lectures;
And when she has him by the neck faft,
Halls him, and scolds us down to breakfast.

5

10

45

We squander there an hour or more,
And then all hands, boys, to the oar,

All, heteroclite Dan except,

Who neither time nor order kept,

* Mr. Rochfort.

20

+ His brother, Mr. John Rochfort; who was called

Nimrod, from his great attachment to the chace.
Rev. Daniel Jackson.

Dr. Swift..

But,

But, by peculiar whimsies drawn,
Peeps in the ponds to look for spawn;
O'erfees the work, or Dragon * rows,
Or mars a text, or mends his hose;
Or-but proceed we in our journal-
At two, or after, we return all :
From the four elements assembling,

Warn'd by the bell, all folks come trembling :

From airy garrets fome defcend,

25

Some from the lake's remotest end.

30

My Lord † and Dean the fire forfake,

Dan leaves the earthly spade and rake:
The loiterers quake, no corner hides them,

And lady Betty foundly chides them.

Now water's brought, and dinner's done:
With "Church and King" the lady 's gone :

35

(Not reckoning half an hour we pass

In talking o'er a moderate glass).
Dan, growing drowsy, like a thief

Steals off to dofe away his beef;

4

And this must pass for reading Hammond

While George and Dean go to backgammon.
George, Nim, and Dean, set out at four,

And then again, boys, to the oar.
But when the fun goes to the deep

45

(Not to disturb him in his fleep,

* A small boat fo called.

+ Mr. Rochfort's father was lord chief baron of the exchequer in Ireland.

Or

Or make a rumbling o'er his head,
His candle out, and he a-bed)
We watch his motions to a minute,
And leave the flood when he goes in it.
Now ftinted in the shortening day,
We go to prayers, and then to play,
Till fupper comes; and after that
We fit an hour to drink and chat.
'Tis late the old and younger pairs,
By Adam * lighted, walk up stairs.
The weary Dean goes to his chamber;
And Nim and Dan to garret clamber.
So when the circle we have run,
The curtain falls, and all is done.
I might have mention'd several facts,
Like episodes between the acts;
And tell who loses and who wins,
Who gets a cold, who breaks his shins;
How Dan caught nothing in his net,

And how the boat was overset.

For brevity I have retrench'd

How in the lake the Dean was drench'd:
It would be an exploit to brag on,

50

55

60

65

How valiant George rode o'er the Dragon;

70

How steady in the storm he fat,

And fav'd his oar, but loft his hat:

Now Nim (no hunter e'er could match him)

Still brings us hares, when he can catch them :

* The butler.

How 75

How skilfully Dan mends his nets;
How fortune fails him when he fets:

Or how the Dean delights to vex
The ladies, and lampoon their fex :
I might have told how oft' dean Percivale

Displays his pedantry unmerciful,
How haughtily he cocks his nose,
To tell what every school-boy knows;
And with his finger and his thumb,
Explaining, ftrikes opposers dumb :
But now there needs no more be faid on 't,
Nor how his wife, that female pedant,
Shews all her fecrets of house-keeping;
For candles how the trucks her dripping;
Was forc'd to fend three miles for yeaft,
To brew her ale, and raise her paste;
Tells every thing that you can think of,
How the cur'd Charly of the chin-cough;
What gave her brats and pigs the meafles,
And how her doves were kill'd by weasels;
How Jowler howl'd, and what a fright
She had with dreams the other night.
But now, fince I have gone fo far on,
A word or two of lord chief baron;
And tell how little weight he fets
On all Whig papers and Gazettes;
But for the politics of Pue,
Thinks every fyllable is true.
And fince he owns the king of Sweden.
Is dead at laft, without evading,