and, from the great height at which they were to be viewed, were meant to excite admiration by the grandeur of general effect, rather than the exquisiteness of minute detail. Imagine the awful beauty of the statues within the temple, where both were to be combined! Conceive the stupendous symmetry of the Minerva, thirty-nine feet high-the still more majestic proportions of the Olympian Jupiter, executed for the Eleans!" How long this enumeration might have continued it is impossible to say; but it was rudelybroken, and the whole fabric of my reverie demolished, by the voice of the Museum porter,-" Sir, you're the only gemman left, and we always locks the doors at six."Once more I surveyed the marble upon which the living eyes of all the illustrious persons I have mentioned had been formerly fixed, as well as those of Cicero, Pliny, Pausanias, and Plutarch, who have recorded their visits to the Parthenon; and then, with slow steps, I quitted the building. On reaching the street, I still doubted whether I was in the Acropolis, the Agora, or before the theatre of Bacchus; when a lamplighter, scampering by me, skipped up his ladder, and, by the light of his link, I discovered, printed on a black board, "GREAT RUSSELL STREET, BLOOMSBURY." NEHEMIAH MUGGS. Most courteous Reader, pray permit the Fool (One Mister Muggs is hero of the poem ;) Ours shall be usher'd by a pompous proem. So for your ample solace and instruction, Take this grave sample of an INTRODUCTION. No sweet Arcadian pipe is mine- And myrtle bowers, Bade nymphs and sylvan boys arise, To form, with laughing loves, an earthly Paradise. I may not, with the classic few, Snatch inspiration from the Muses' hill; Nor, raptured, quaff poetic dew From Aganippe's rill.— Vales and mountains, Grots and fountains, The haunt of heroes, and the poet's theme- Burst on my vision like a glorious dream.— But, ah! as soon to fade away, For Christian knights demand my lay. Not steel-clad Crusaders, with lances and shields, On the sands of Damascus and Nazareth.- Down to the waters of Galilee's fount. Fearless were they, by night or by day, Who, with turban and beard, and scymitars rear'd, Where the crescented flag o'er the battlements flash'd. Nor sing I of the knights whose fame Alas! no fancy-woven wreaths Their perfume o'er my pathway shed, And no melodious spirit breathes Wild inspiration o'er my head. Here we must close our proem (what a pity!) And tumble from Parnassus to THE CITY. Bright broke the morning in the blaze Of London's own romantic traits. And now (so great Hippona pleased) Two coaches rattled past; Their bugle-horns the guardmen seized, Now let the reader take a view As sculls like his are apt to be. O reader, fix your eyes where I have said; A name that would inspirit slugs! Leap from his cheese of Stilton, And every native oyster write So I'll prepare to do the same, His pedigree was old, no doubt, Bidding the wearer still inherit And prove by treatise erudite He was a human aërolite, Ejected from some moon volcano, (Though that is more than I or they know), Where still are kept the wits of Muggs, In one of Ariosto's jugs.— If he had chosen to have had 'em, He might have bought descents from Adam; With blanks for Norman sires and cousins. Birth cannot give our faults redemption; Emblaze themselves, without the College; Do but degrade their wearers more, As to his trade our hero held Gilt gingerbread, and penny trumpets, In short, the catalogue to stop, He kept a thriving chandler's shop. |