PR117B B4

V. 2

THE

EPISTLES

FAMILIAR AND HUMOROUS.

90241

FAMILIAR AND HUMOROUS.

EPISTLE I.

FROM

SOAME JENYNS, ESQ.

IN THE COUNTRY,

To the

LORD LOVELACE

IN TOWN.

In days, my Lord, when mother Time,
Though now grown old, was in her prime,
When SATURN first began to rule,

And JOVE was hardly come from school,
How happy was a country life!

How free from wickedness and strife!
Then each man liv'd upon his farm,
And thought and did no mortal harm;
On mossy banks fair virgins slept,
As harmless as the flocks they kept;
Then love was all they had to do,

And nymphs were chaste, and swains were true.

But now, whatever poets write,

'Tis sure the case is alter'd quite,

Virtue no more in rural plains,
Or innocence, or peace remains;
But vice is in the cottage found,
And country girls are oft unsound:
Fierce party-rage each village fires,
With wars of justices and 'squires:
Attorneys, for a barley-straw,
Whole ages hamper folks in law;
And every neighbour's in a flame
About their rates, or tythes, or game:
Some quarrel for their hares and pigeons,
And some for diff'rence in religions:
Some hold their parson the best preacher,
The tinker some a better teacher;

These, to the Church they fight for, strangers,
Have faith in nothing, but her dangers;
While those, a more believing people,
Can swallow all things-but a steeple.

But I, my Lord, who, as you know,
Care little how these matters go,
And equally detest the strife
And usual joys of country life,
Have by good fortune little share
Of its diversions, or its care;
For seldom I with 'squires unite,
Who hunt all day, and drink all night;
Nor reckon wonderful inviting,

A quarter-sessions, or cock-fighting: