But tho' it went to th' well so oft before,
At last, 'tis crackt, alas! and holds no more.

The measure and turn of Anstey's Bath Guide occurs in a poem entitled "Plures aluit Aristoteles quam Alexander," I cite part of a supposed gaudy-day bill of fare.

A scholar's light egg, pickt as clean as a bone,
Or a worse than a scholar's, a logicall one;
Chimerical pullets, digested too soon,

Dress'd at his own fire by the Man in the Moon.
Such dishes as these, 'tis confess'd, are design'd
For stomachs abstracted and palates refin'd.

The following lines are taken from another poem in the same measure, entitled-" A King turned Thresher."

The soul of Domitian sunk into a clod,
Dionysius his scepter was light as his rod :

And the little-great Charles with his shovel and spade
Dug a hole, and lay down in the grave he had made.
But a thousand times brighter my stars do appear,

And I ne'er was a monarch in earnest till here:
On a heap of fresh straw I can laugh and lye down,
And pity the man that's condemn'd to a crown.

That well-known line in Milton's Hymn on the Nativity,

While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave,

is thus nearly borrowed, though without any hint at

the source; unless the note appended, as below, should have any obliquity of allusion.

And birds of calm brood o'er the marble wave.

"These are a kind of creatures the poets have had the happiness to discover, as harpys, chymæras, &c. when all the other less inquisitive, or less lucky part of the world, knows nothing of 'em. They are said to brood on the sea at a set time of the year: and Neptune, while they are hatching, is so complaisant to give 'em all fair weather. If any would see any more of 'em, let 'em enquire at Lucian's true history, second part, and they shall know farther."

GOLDINGHAM'S GARDEN PLOT.

THIS is a poem which occurs among the Harleian MSS. No. 6902, and has been incidentally noticed by Mr. Nichols in his Preface to vol. iii. of the Progresses, &c. of Queen Elizabeth, On the first glance it looks not altogether unlike in its intention to the Darwinian Prosopopaia on the Loves of the Plants; but it differs on a further survey: of both Ovid was the prototype. The author's plan is specified in his dedication to the Queen.

"MADAM,

"In regarde of your Magestye's mild govermente over your subjectes, and in token of my bounden duety

and allegeance to your Hyghnes, I have framed thys presente, by shew artyfycyalye to continue that your remembrance, whych by course hath naturaly discontinued from your syghte: wherin, althoughe I canot with my conninge counterfett with flowers, to deceave birdes, or senceles creatures, as Apelles did with his Grapes; or beguile reasonable men themselves, as Zeuxes did with his Carpet; or be assoiled in overlyking my owne device, as Pigmalion was upon his marble Image: yet I hope your Majestie will no lesse accepte of my well-offeringe then Dido did, to see Æneas with a rodd draw foorth the araye of the Greekishe hoste in the sea-sandes; or that the Ladys of Greece, when theire husbands at theire retire, did with theire fingers dipte in wine, syttinge at the table, drawe the whole plott of the Cetye of Troye. Indeed the matter ys not so historycall, and yet in effecte more morall: and therfore shewyth as well to derecte the lyfe as to delyghte the mynde, and may perhapps mysticali contayne as strange transformacions of men and wemen to trees, herbes, and flowers, as ever Ovyd reportid of, in his booke called Metamorphosis: which beynge discovered, may move your Hyghnes to higher delighte, and move me to forther travell: and in tyme, as my grounde shall increase, to adde to this Garden-Plott bothe an Orcharde of plesant frutes, and a Parke of strange beaste. Humbly beseachynge your Mageste, in the meane tyme, so to accepte hereof: allthoughe the worke shall not deserve greatly to be comendyd, yett the meanynge of the man may not be utterly condemned, who sekethe to delyght your princeli mynde in all honest plesances and besechinge God that you [may] longe delyght in the same, to the great joye of all your Magestes subjectes. Your Magestes moste loyall

HENRY GOLDYNGHAM."

The poem opens with an inviting description of the attractions of a summer-morning in the country;

and has the following, among several other pleasing

stanzas.

The busie bees from hollow hive dyd haste,

The lyttell antes came swarmynge from theyre cells,
The hissing snakes on sunny bankes were plaste,
And slothfull snayls gan peepe from out their shells:
But I, whiche myghte not byde the heate of daye,
From mottly meades dyd haste my selfe awaye.

J.

The poet hastens into the midst of a pleasant wood, where he is courteously invited to stay by a fair lady, decked with flowers gay, who calls herself Dame Elonis, and who is a sort of floriferous Enchantress. After some conversation, she places her tyro in a bower, where he might observe whatever passed in a Gardenplot adjoining, and soon appeared "a crewe of courtlyke wyghts,"

Lyke lovynge lordes and ladyes there they seemde,
In humayne shape, whych myghte devyne be deemde.
Some hande in hande, some all alone dyd walke;
And as they went, Dame Fancy wylde them chuse
The flower or leafe, the roote or els the stalke,
Whych lykte them beste theyr plesurs so to use:
Thus Fancye strayghte dyd cause them chuse and take
For vertu, smell, or els for collor's sake.

The poet then passes on to represent the proceedings of the courtly crew, to describe the objects of their choice, to allegorise the meaning thereof, and in a prose l'envoy to comment upon and expound the reasons for such choice.

A seemly sir was the fyrste that pluckt the fyrste,
And suche a flower as grewe not wythe the reste;
Not passynge all, ne yett of all the worste,

Butt even the sweet that lyked fancy beste:

A trewe love trymme thys Prymrose, so hit hight,
Was that he chose as chyfe of hys delyght.

Well may I prayse, and yett not parcyall seeme,
Where truth (quothe he) doth boldely beare me owte,
Yf so I may, then must I beste esteme

Thys galant flower for vertue, out of doubte:

My Prymrose sweet ys, lo! a tru-love rare,

As showes her leaves, so even thyrd * whytt they are.

My Prymrose is the lady of the Sprynge,

The lovely flower that fyrst doth showe her face; Whose worthy prayse the pretty byrdes do synge, Whose presence sweet the wynter's colde doth chase : She drawes frome house the wery wynttred wyghtes, And gladethe them wyth worldes of newe delyghts.

"Howe well the Prymrose, beynge the fyrst flower of the Spryng whyche representethe Youthe, may well be alluded to á tru-love, I leave for you to consider, who by comparing them together shall fynde theyr buddynge, floreshyng, and fadyng, all alycke. And yett, notwythstandynge the choyse thereof so good, as when the bewty fadethe, there restethe a vertu. behynde, whyche the shape of the flower dothe sygnyfie; leavynge a kynde of commendacyon to the chusere: who thoughe he desyre to have it youthefull, yett regardethe (so farre as his age permyttethe) to have yt also frutfull. So that as owtewardly it semethe goodly, it inwardlye may be also thought godly."

I suspect this was intended to mean as white as thread. The idiom resembles that of the old romances.