Quaff-cups for quadrupeds accustom’d to courses, And handsome cart-harness for husbandry horses; With saddles and bridles for hunters and hacks, And plate spurs for ponies that pay no _Pitt-tax_: Spring whips made for mules, and good armour for asses, And harlequin habits for lads and for lasses; Gloves, hats, hose, and handkerchiefs, shirts, shifts, and shoes, To run, gape, or grin for, as candidates choose. With multitudes mingled the turf was attended, Like barley and beans, there the belles and beaux blended; From town and the country such numbers assembled, The race-ground a Newcastle meeting resembled; Which cohorts all creeds and conditions comprised, And dresses, distinctions, and deserts disguised; By vintners made vivid, their views became various, Amusements were many, and mirth multifarious. The racers (at _Watson’s_) were regularly enter’d, And money at booking was formally ventur’d; A Newmarket rider, rear’d in racing stables, Conversant in quirks, and acquainted with cabals; Whose powers of profession were priz’d upon paction, And principles privately put up to auction: Some Monkseaton farmers on fraud plac’d affiance, But saw in the sequel their rotten reliance. By bribing that brigand, this son of deception Receiv’d ready rhino, yet made his election; This presto, his pupils to peasants prefer’d; In bilking his brethren, the eft would have err’d! To gull’d speculators, a vulcan as vile, Stak’d too with turf-students in tangible style, Till duped delinquents were doom’d through the day, Their debts of dishonour on peril to pay. Corruption creeps into both commerce and courts, Then who can repel it from rural resorts? As all public places are pester’d with prowlers, The streets are stagnated with stigmatiz’d strollers; And some sanguine swindlers, though subtile and snug, Plunge into the pit they for others had dug; The same at Monkseaton, the mass must admit, (With self-satisfaction) “_The biters were bit_”!!! [79] South Seaton, so called at the time; but afterwards Monk Seaton, where ---- Delaval, Esq. so completely castigated a covetous capuchin as to cause his death; for so doing, however, great part of his possessions were forfeited.--See the _History of Tynemouth_. THE ALARM!!! _Or, Lord Fauconberg’s March._ On the commencement of the impress service, in March, 1793, considerable riots took place at Shields, which were represented at Newcastle, in a thousand terrific shapes; and a false alarm having been given at the Mansion House, the drums of the York Militia beat to arms; Lord Fauconberg marched that regiment to the house of Rendezvous in the Broad Chare, and then marched back again. God prosper long our _warlike_ king, And noblemen also, Who valiantly, with sword in hand, Doth guard us from each foe.