The sentence being irreversible, the captain made the ODE, and sent
it, with his epistle, to Mr. Urry, who thereupon had his release."
"The epistle here mentioned," adds Tom, "is a ludicrous prose analysis
of the ODE, beginning _Opusculum tuum, Halberdarie amplissime_," &c.,
and is printed in the fourth volume of Dr. Johnson's English Poets,
who pronounces it _unequalled_ by modern writers. This same Oxonian,
Smith, had obtained the _soubriquet_ of