ODE TO THE LATE LORD MAYOR,10 ON THE PUBLICATION OF HIS VISIT TO OXFORD.”* "Now, Night descending, the proud scene is o'er, But lives in Settle's numbers one day more." POPE-On the Lord Mayor's Show. O WORTHY MAYOR!-I mean to say Ex-Mayor! And dam-inspector! Great guardian of small sprats that swim the flood King of Mogg's map! Keeper of Gates that long have "gone their gait," Thou first and greatest of the civic great, O Honorable Ven (Forgive this little liberty between us), Who wield the pen! Dillon's Mæcenas ! Patron of Learning where she ne'er did dwell, Where few except the postman and his bell— * See the published work of the Rev. Mr. Dillon, the Lord Mayor's Chaplain, who, in his zealous endeavor to stamp immortality upon the civic expedition to Oxford, has outrun every production in the annals of burlesque, even the long renowned "Voyage from Paris to St. Cloud." Well hast thou done, Right Honorable Sir— Wordsworth once wrote a trifle of the sort; For truth--for nature-everything in short- The stately story Of Oxford glory— The Thames romance-yet nothing of a fiction- In diction worthy of thy jurisdiction ! For thou didst carry Thy navigation to a fellow crisis. He penetrated to a Frozen Sea, And thou-to where the Thames is turned to Isis !* I like thy setting out! Thy coachman and thy coachmaid boxed together!† * The Chaplain doubts the correctness of the Thames being turned into the Isis at Oxford: of course he is right-according to the course of the river, it must be the Isis that is turned into the Thames. + "As soon as the female attendant of the Lady Mayoress had taken her seat, dressed with becoming neatness, at the side of the well-looking coachman, the carriage drove away."-Visit. "The coachman's countenance was reserved and thoughtful, indicating full consciousness of the test by which his equestrian skill would this day be tried."-Ibid. I like the slow state pace-the pace allowed So hot that it let off the Hounslow powder !† I like the steeples with their weathercocks on, I like your learned rambles not amiss, The other Halls were scrambled through more hastily; * "The carriage drove away; not, however, with that violent and extreme rapidity which rather astounds than gratifies the beholders; but at that steady and majestic pace, which is always an indication of real greatness." "On approaching Hounslow, there was seen at some distance a huge volume of dark smoke." The Chaplain thought it was only a blowing up for rain, but it turned out to be the spontaneous combustion of a powdermill. "The Lady Mayoress, observing that they (the Magnays) must be somewhat crowded in the chaise, invited Miss Magnay to take the fourth seat.' § "The Rev. Dr. Bliss, of St. John's College, the Registrar of the University, to whom Mr. Alderman Atkins had letters of introduction.”—P. 32. I like the Aldermen who stopped to drink I like to find thee finally afloat; I like thy being barged and water-bailiffed, To thy state-galley in his own state-boat. Who quotes from "Cooper's Hill," And Birch, the cookly Birch, grown sentimental;† And quoting Denham, in the watery dock Plainly no Lock upon the Understanding! I like thy civic deed At Runnymede, Where ancient Britons came in arms to barter Their lives for right—Ah, did not Waithman grow Half mad to show Where his renowned forefathers came to bleed And freeborn Magnay triumph at his Charter? * "The Buttery was next visited, in which some of the party tasted the classic water.”—P. 57. "Mr. Alderman Birch here called to the recollection of the party the beautiful lines of Sir John Denham on the river Thames :-'Tho' deep yet clear, etc.'"-P. 90. I like full well thy ceremonious setting The justice-sword (no doubt it wanted whetting!) Flag over stone Reads like a most superfluous piece of paving! I like thy Cliefden treat; but I'm not going Well hast thou done, Right Honorable rover, I say it with a meaning reverential, But let him be rich, lordly, wise, sentential, To go out by the other! This is their Lordships' universal order!— And every Lord Mayor his own Recorder! * "It was also a part of the ceremony, which, though importaut, is simple, that the City banner should wave over the stone."-P. 144. |