"For the neglect of offers past
And pride in days of yore,
He kindles up a fire at last,
That burns her at threescore.
"A polish'd wile is smoothly spread
Where whilome wrinkles lay;
And, glowing with an artful red,
She ogles at the play.
"Along the Mall she softly sails,
In white and silver drest;
Her neck expos'd to Eastern gales,
And jewels on her breast.
"Her children banish'd, age forgot,
Lord Sidney is her care;
And, what is a much happier lot,
Has hopes to be her _heir_.
"This is all true history, though
it is doggerel rhyme: in good earnest she has
turned Lady D---- and family out of doors to make room
for him, and there he lies like leaf-gold upon a pill;
there never was so violent and so indiscreet a passion.
Lady Stafford says nothing was ever like it, since
Phædra and Hippolitus.--'Lord ha' mercy upon us! See
what we may all come to!'
"M. W. M."
Again--the following words are as colours taken from the pallet of a Sir
Joshua:
"Cavendish-square, 1727.
"I cannot deny, but that I was very well diverted on
the Coronation day. I saw the procession much at my
ease, in a house which I filled with my own company,
and then got into Westminster-hall without trouble,
where it was very entertaining to observe the variety
of airs that all meant the same thing. The business
of every walker there was to conceal vanity and
gain admiration. For these purposes some languished
and others strutted; but a visible satisfaction was
diffused over every countenance, as soon as the
coronet was clapped on the head. But she that drew the
greatest number of eyes, was indisputably Lady Orkney.
She exposed behind a mixture of fat and wrinkles;
and before, a very considerable protuberance which
preceded her. Add to this, the inimitable roll of her
eyes, and her grey hairs, which by good fortune stood
directly upright, and 'tis impossible to imagine a
more delightful spectacle. She had embellished all this
with considerable magnificence, which made her look as
big again as usual; and I should have thought her one
of the largest things of God's making if my Lady St.
J**n had not displayed all her charms in honour of the
day. The poor Duchess of M***se _crept along with a
dozen of black snakes playing round her face_, and my
Lady P***nd (who is fallen away since her dismission
from court) represented very finely an Egyptian mummy
embroidered over with hieroglyphics."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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