GRANTA. A MEDLEY.

« Αργυρέαις λόγχαισι μάχου καὶ πάντα Κρατήσαις;”

OH! Could Le Sage's (1) demon's gift
Be realized at my desire,

This night my trembling form he'd lift
To place it on St. Mary's spire.

Then would, unroof'd, old Granta's halls
Pedantic inmates full display;
Fellows who dream on lawn or stalls,
The price of venal votes to pay.

Then would I view each rival wight,
Petty and Palmerston survey;
Who canvass there with all their might,
Against the next elective day. (2)

circled her, much personal beauty, and a disposition the most amiable and attaching. Though already fully alive to her charms, it was at this period (1804) that the young poet seems to have drunk deepest of that fascination whose effects were to be so lasting; six short weeks which he passed in her company being sufficient to lay the foundation of a feeling for all life. With the summer holidays ended this dream of his youth. He saw Miss Chaworth once more in the succeeding year, and took his last farewell of her on that hill near Annesley, which, in his poem of 'The Dream,' he describes so happily as crowned with a peculiar diadem.'” In August, 1805, she was married to John Musters, Esq.; and died at Wiverton Hall, in February, 1832, in consequence, it is believed, of the alarm and danger to which she had been exposed during the sack of Colwick Hall by a party of rioters from Nottingham. The unfortunate lady had been in a feeble state of health for several years, and she and her daughter were obliged to take shelter from the violence of the mob in a shrubbery, where, partly from cold, partly from terror, her constitution sustained a shock which it wanted vigour to resist.-E.

(1) The Diable Boiteux of Le Sage, where Asmodeus, the demon, places Don Cleofas on an elevated situation, and unroofs the houses for inspection. (2) On the death of Mr. Pitt, in January, 1806, Lord Henry Petty and

Lo! candidates and voters lie (1)

All lull'd in sleep, a goodly number: A race renown'd for piety,

Whose conscience won't disturb their slumber.

Lord H.

·(2), indeed, may not demur;

Fellows are sage reflecting men : They know preferment can occur

They know the Chancellor has got
Some pretty livings in disposal:
Each hopes that one may be his lot,
And therefore smiles on his proposal.

Now from the soporific scene

I'll turn mine eye, as night grows later, To view, unheeded and unseen,

The studious sons of Alma Mater.

There, in apartments small and damp,
The candidate for college prizes
Sits poring by the midnight lamp;

Goes late to bed, yet early rises.

Lord Palmerston were candidates to represent the University of Cambridge in parliament.-E.

(1) The fourth and fifth stanzas ran, in the private volume, thus:

"One on his power and place depends,

The other on-the Lord knows what!

Each to some eloquence pretends,
Though neither will convince by that.

"The first, indeed, may not demur;

Fellows are sage reflecting men," &c.-E.

(2) Edward-Harvey Hawke, third Lord Hawke.

He surely well deserves to gain them,
With all the honours of his college,
Who, striving hardly to obtain them,
Thus seeks unprofitable knowledge:

Who sacrifices hours of rest

To scan precisely metres attic ;
Or agitates his anxious breast
In solving problems mathematic:

Who reads false quantities in Seale (1),
Or puzzles o'er the deep triangle;
Deprived of many a wholesome meal;
In barbarous Latin (2) doom'd to wrangle:

Renouncing every pleasing page

From authors of historic use;
Preferring to the letter'd sage,
The square of the hypothenuse. (3)

Still, harmless are these occupations,
That hurt none but the hapless student,
Compared with other recreations,

Which bring together the imprudent;

(1) Seale's publication on Greek Metres displays considerable talent and ingenuity, but, as might be expected in so difficult a work, is not remarkable for accuracy.

(2) The Latin of the schools is of the canine species, and not very intelligible.

(3) The discovery of Pythagoras, that the square of the hypothenuse is equal to the squares of the other two sides of a right-angled triangle.

Whose daring revels shock the sight,
When vice and infamy combine,
When drunkenness and dice invite,
As every sense is steep'd in wine.

Not so the methodistic crew,
Who plans of reformation lay:
In humble attitude they sue,
And for the sins of others pray :

Forgetting that their pride of spirit,
Their exultation in their trial,
Detracts most largely from the merit
Of all their boasted self-denial.

"Tis morn-from these I turn my sight.
What scene is this which meets the eye?
A numerous crowd, array'd in white (1),
Across the green in numbers fly.

Loud rings in air the chapel bell;

'Tis hush'd:-what sounds are these I hear?

The organ's soft celestial swell

Rolls deeply on the list'ning ear.

To this is join'd the sacred song,
The royal minstrel's hallow'd strain ;
Though he who hears the music long
Will never wish to hear again.

(1) On a saint's day, the students wear surplices in chapel.

Our choir would scarcely be excused,
Even as a band of raw beginners;
All mercy now must be refused

To such a set of croaking sinners.

If David, when his toils were ended,

Had heard these blockheads sing before him, To us his psalms had ne'er descended,In furious mood he would have tore 'em.

The luckless Israelites, when taken
By some inhuman tyrant's order,
Were ask'd to sing, by joy forsaken,
On Babylonian river's border.

Oh! had they sung in notes like these,
Inpired by stratagem or fear,

They might have set their hearts at ease,
The devil a soul had stay'd to hear.

But if I scribble longer now,

The deuce a soul will stay to read:

My pen is blunt, my ink is low;
'Tis almost time to stop, indeed.

Therefore, farewell, old Granta's spires!
No more, like Cleofas, I fly;

No more thy theme my muse inspires:
The reader's tired, and so am I.

1806.