When Fielding, Humour’s fav’rite child, appear’d, _Low_ was the word—a word each author fear’d! Till chas’d at length, by pleasantry’s bright ray, Nature and mirth resum’d their legal sway; And Goldsmith’s genius bask’d in open day. According to Borrow’s _Lavengro_, ch. xli, Lord Chesterfield considered that the speeches of Homer’s heroes were frequently ‘exceedingly low.’ How often, etc. This and the lines which immediately follow are autobiographical. Cf. George Primrose’s story in _The Vicar of Wakefield_, 1766, ii. 24–5 (ch. i):—‘I passed among the harmless peasants of Flanders, and among such of the French as were poor enough to be very merry; for I ever found them sprightly in proportion to their wants. Whenever I approached a peasant’s house towards night-fall, I played one of my most merry tunes, and that procured me not only a lodging, but subsistence for the next day.’ gestic lore, i.e. traditional gestures or motions. Scott uses the word ‘gestic’ in _Peveril of the Peak_, ch. xxx, where King Charles the Second witnesses the dancing of Fenella:—‘He bore time to her motions with the movement of his foot—applauded with head and with hand—and seemed, like herself, carried away by the enthusiasm of the _gestic_ art.’ [Hales.] Thus idly busy rolls their world away. Pope has ‘Life’s _idle business_’ (_Unfortunate Lady_, l. 81), and— The _busy, idle_ blockheads of the ball. Donne’s _Satires_, iv. l. 203. And all are taught an avarice of praise. Professor Hales (_Longer English Poems_) compares Horace of the Greeks:— Praeter laudem, nullius avaris. _Ars Poetica_, l. 324. copper lace. ‘St Martin’s lace,’ for which, in Strype’s day, Blowbladder St. was famous. Cf. the actress’s ‘copper tail’ in _Citizen of the World_, 1762, ii. 60. To men of other minds, etc. Prior compares with the description that follows a passage in vol. i. p. 276 of _Animated Nature_, 1774:—‘But we need scarce mention these, when we find that the whole kingdom of Holland seems to be a conquest upon the sea, and in a manner rescued from its bosom. The surface of the earth, in this country, is below the level of the bed of the sea; and I remember, upon approaching the coast, to have looked down upon it from the sea, as into a valley.’ Where the broad ocean leans against the land. Cf. Dryden in _Annus Mirabilis_, 1666, st. clxiv. l. 654:— And view the ocean leaning on the sky. the tall rampire’s, i.e. rampart’s (Old French, _rempart, rempar_). Cf. _Timon of Athens_, Act v. Sc. 4:—‘Our rampir’d gates.’ bosom reign in the first edition was ‘breast obtain.’