"At each distinguish'd birth-night ball, to fee
"The homage, due to Empire, paid to me!
"When every eye was fix'd on me alone,

" And dreaded mine more than the Monarch's frown;
" When rival statesmen for my favour strove,
" Less jealous in their power than in their love.
"Chang'd is the scene; and all my glories die,
" Like flowers transplanted to a colder sky :
" Loft is the dear delight of giving pain,

"The tyrant joy of hearing flaves complain.

" In stupid indolence my life is spent,

Supinely calm, and dully innocent:

"Unblest I wear my ufeless time away;

." Sleep (wretched maid!) all night, and dream all

"day;

"Go at set hours to dinner and to prayer " (For dullness ever must be regular.) "Now with mamma at tedious whist I play; "Now without scandal drink inlipid tea; "Or in the garden breathe the country air, "Secure from meeting any tempter there; "From books to work, from work to books, I rove, "And am (alas!) at leifure to improve!" Is this the life a Beauty ought to lead? " Were eyes so radiant only made to read? " These fingers, at whose touch ev'n age would glow, "Are these of use for nothing but to sew? "Sure erring Nature never could defign "To form a housewife in a mould like mine!

O Venus,

" O Venus, queen and guardian of the fair,
" Attend propitious to thy votary's prayer:
" Let me revisit the dear town again :
" Let me be seen!-could I that wish obtain,
" All other wishes my own power would gain."

BLENHEIM.

Written at the UNIVERSITY of OXFORD, In the Year 1727.

}

PARENT of arts, whose skilful hand first taught

The towering pile to rife, and form'd the plan

With fair proportion; architect divine,
Minerva; thee to my adventurous lyre
Assistant I invoke, that means to fing
Blenheim, proud monument of British fame,
Thy glorious work! for thou the lofty towers
Didst to his virtue raise, whom oft thy shield
In peril guarded, and thy wisdom steer'd
Through all the storms of war. -Thee too I call,
Thalia, sylvan Muse, who lov'it to rove
Along the shady paths and verdant bowers
Of Woodstock's happy grove: there tuning sweet
Thy rural pipe, while all the Dryad train
Attentive liften; let thy warbling fong
Paint with melodious praise the pleasing scene,
And equal these to Pindus' honor'd shades.

When Europe freed, confefs'd the faving power
Of Malborough's hand; Britain, who fent him forth

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:

Chief

f

Chief of Confederate hosts, to fight the cause
Of Liberty and Justice, grateful rais'd
This palace, facred to her leader's fame :
A trophy of fuccess; with spoils adorn'd
Of conquer'd towns, and glorying in the name
Of that aufpicious field, where Churchill's sword
Vanquish'd the might of Gallia, and chaftis'd
Rebel Bavar. Majestic in its strength,

Stands the proud dome, and speaks its great design.
Hail, happy chief, whose valour could deserve

Reward fo glorious! grateful nation, hail,
Who paid'st his service with so rich a meed!
Which most shall I admire, which worthiest praise,
The hero or the people? Honour doubts,
And weighs their virtues in an equal fcale.
Not thus Germania pays th' uncancel'd debt
Of Gratitude to us. -Blush, Cæfar, blush,
When thou behold'st these towers; ingrate, to thee
A monument of shame! Canst thou forget
Whence they are nam'd, and what an English arm
Did for thy throne that day? But we disdain
Or to upbraid or imitate thy guilt.
Still thy obdurate heart against the sense
Of obligation infinite; and know,

Britain, like Heaven, protects a thankless world
For her own glory, nor expects reward.

Pleas'd with the noble theme, her task the. Muse
Pursues untir'd, and through the palace roves
With ever-new delight. The tapestry rich
With gold, and gay with all the beauteous paint

Of

Of various-colour'd filks, dispos'd with skill,
Attracts her curious eye. Here Ister rolls
His purple wave; and there the Granick flood
With passing squadrons foams: here hardy Gaul.
Flies from the sword of Britain; there to Greece
Effeminate Persia yields. In arms oppos'd,
Marlborough and Alexander vie for fame
With glorious competition; equal both
In valour and in fortune: but their praise
Be different, for with different views they fought;
This to fubdue, and that to free mankind.

Now, through the stately portals issuing forth,,
The Muse to softer glories turns, and seeks
The woodland shade, delighted. Not the vale
Of Tempe fam'd in fong, or Ida's grove,
Such beauty boasts. Amid the mazy glooma
Of this romantic wilderness once stood
The bower of Rosamonda, hapless fair,
Sacred to Grief and Love; the crystal fount
In which she us'd to bathe her beauteous limbs
Still warbling flows, pleas'd to reflect the face..
Of Spencer, lovely maid, when tir'd she sits
Beside its flowery brink, and views those charms
Which only Rosamond could once excell.
But fee where, flowing with a nobler stream,
A limpid lake of purest waters rolls..

Beneath the wide-stretch'd arch, stupendous work,
Through which the Danube might collected pour
His spacious urn! Silent a while and smooth
The current glides, till with an headlong force...

C3

Broke

Broke and disorder'd, down the steep it falls
In loud cafcades; the filver-sparkling foam
Glitters relucent in the dancing ray.

In these retreats repos'd the mighty foul
Of Churchill, from the toils of war and state,
Splendidly private, and the tranquil joy
Of contemplation felt, while Blenheim's dome
Triumphal ever in his mind renew'd
The memory of his fame, and footh'd his thoughts
With pleasing record of his glorious deeds.
So, by. the rage of Faction home recall'd,
Lucullus, while he wag'd successful war
Against the pride of Afia, and the power
Of Mithridates, whose aspiring mind
No loffes could fubdue, enrich'd with spoils
Of conquer'd nations, back return'd to Rome,
And in magnificent retirement past
The evening of his life. But not alone,
In the calm shades of honourable ease,
Great Marlborough peaceful dwelt: indulgent Heaven
Gave a companion to his softer hours,
With whom converfing, he forgot all change
Of fortune, or of state, and in her mind
Found greatness equal to his own, and lov'd
Himself in her. Thus each by each admir'd,
In mutual honour, mutual fondness join'd:
Like two fair stars, with intermingled light,
In friendly union they together shone,
Aiding each other's brightness, till the cloud
Of night eternal quench'd the beams of one.

Thee,