Some years since I copied from a MS. vol., compiled before 1708, the
following effusions of a Jacobite poet, who seems to have been "a good
hater" of King William. I have made ineffectual efforts to discover the
witty author, or to ascertain if these compositions have ever been
printed. My friend, in whose waste-book I found them,--a beneficed
clergyman in Worcestershire, who has been several years dead,--obtained
them from a college friend during the last century.
"UPON KING WILLIAM'S TWO FIRST CAMPAGNES.
"'Twill puzzle much the author's brains,
That is to write your story,
To know in which of these campagnes
You have acquired most glory:
For when you march'd the foe to fight,
Like Heroe, nothing fearing,
Namur was taken in your sight,
And Mons within your hearing."
"ON THE OBSERVING THE 30TH OF JANUARY, 1691.
"Cease, Hippocrites, to trouble heaven
How can ye think to be forgiven
The dismall deed you've done?
When to the martyr's sacred blood,
This very moment, if you could,
You'd sacrifice his son."
"ON KING WILLIAM'S RETURN OUT OF FLANDERS.
"Rejoice, yee fops, yo'r idoll's come agen
To pick yo'r pocketts, and to slay yo'r men;
Give him yo'r millions, and his Dutch yo'r lands:
Don't ring yo'r bells, yee fools, but wring yo'r hands."