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SINGULAR INSCRIPTION.

The following lines were written on a window, at the Warwick Arms Inn, High Street, Warwick, in four different languages.

In questa casa troverata.

Tout ce qu'on peut souhaiter,
Vinum, panem, pisces, carnes,
Coaches, chaises, horses, harness.

THE CONSOLATIONS OF FRIENDSHIP.

There's something in this world of woe
That lingers round the heart-
And there will shed a transient glow,
When other joys depart.

It is the look of those we love,

The smiles of those most dear,

That friend with friend had sweetly wove;
Oh! this hath power to cheer.

But moments swiftly speed away,
However blest they be ;

And many a friend, and many a foe,

For us no more to see.

And, oh! it grieves the weary breast,
And chills the drooping heart,
That pleasure's beam, and reason's zest,
May sparkle-but depart.

ON TAKING A WIFE.

"Come, come," said Tom's father, "at your time of life

There's no longer excuse for thus playing the rake,

It is time you should think, boy, of taking a

wife,

Why so it is, father-whose wife shall I take?"

A LOVE COUPLET.

In the following love couplet, there is great paucity of words, but as much meaning as there are in many most moving love songs.

"I look'd and lov'd, and lov'd and look'd, and look'd and lov'd again;

But look'd and lov'd, and lov'd and look'd, and look'd and lov'd in vain."

THE TWO CONTRACTORS.

To gull the public two contractors come,
One pilfers corn,-the other cheats in rum ;
Which is the greatest knave ye wits explain,
A rogue in spirit, or a rogue in grain.

A PRUDENT CHOICE.

When Love-less married Lady Jenny,
Whose beauty was the ready-penny ;
"I choose her," said he, "like old plate,
Not for the fashion, but for weight."

THE FOOTPAD.

Dick had but two words to maintain him ever, The one was stand-the other was deliverBut Dick's in Newgate, and he fears shall never

Be bless'd again with that sweet word – deliver '

WILL OF JOHN HEDGES, ESQ.*.

Secretary to His Royal Highness Frederick, Prince of Wales.
This fifth day of May,

Being airy and gay,
To hyp not inclin'd,
But of Vigorous mind,
And my body in health,
I'll dispose of my wealth,
And all I'm to leave
On this side the grave,
To some one or other,
And I think to my brother
But because I foresaw
That my brethren-in-law,
If I did not take care,
Would come in for a share,
Which I no wise intended,
Till their manners were mended,
(And God knows there's no sign ;)
I do therefore enjoin,

And strictly command,
(Of which witness my hand,)
That nought I have got
Be brought to hotch-pot;
But I give and devise,
As much as in me lies,
To the son of my mother,
My own dearest brother,
To have and to hold

All my silver and gold,

As th' affectionate pledges

Of his brother

JOHN HEDGes.

*This Will was proved in Doctors' Commons, and deemed

good in a court of law.

A WARNING TO BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES.

The following effusion_was handed about in some private circles in the city, previous to the Lord Mayor's Day, a few years ago.

Bustards, pheasants, woodcocks widgeons,
Wild ducks, plovers, snipes, and pigeons,
Every fowl, of every sort,

To your native haunts resort-
Turbot, herrings, salmon, soles,
Plunge into your native holes ;
Bucks, and does, and hares, and fawns,
Speed ye to your native lawns;
Each to your closest covert haste-
Beware, beware, the man of taste;
All that can, escape away,

You're surely slaughter'd if ye stay—
For Monday next is Lord Mayor's Day.

ON THREE WIVES.

By Thomas Bastard, Esq.

Though marriage by most folks
Be reckoned a curse,
Three wives I did marry,

For better or worse.
The first—for her person,

The next for her purse-
The third for a warming-pan,
Doctress, and nurse.

ON AN INFANT PLAYING ON THE EDGE OF

A PRECIPICE.

(From the Greek of Archias.)

Her infant, playing on the verge of fate,
When but an instant's space had been too late,
And pointed crags had claim'd his forfeit breath-
The mother saw! she laid her bosom bare,-
Her child sprang forward the known bliss to share,
And that which nourished life, now sav'd from
death.

"

ON WALTZING.

At first they move slowly, with caution and grace,
Like horses when just setting out on a race;
For dancers at balls, like horses at races,
Must amble a little to show off their paces.
The music plays faster, their raptures begin,
Like lambkins they skip, like te-to-tums spin;
Now draperies whirl, and now petticoats fly,
And ancles at least are exposed to the eye :
O'er the chalk-cover'd ball-room in circles they
swim;

He smiles upon her, she smiles upon him :
Her hand on his shoulder is tenderly plac'd,
His arm quite as tenderly circles her waist;
They still bear in mind as they're turning each
other,

The proverb-" one good turn's deserving an-
other,"

And these bodily turns often end, it is said,
By turning the lady's or gentleman's head.

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