In Mr. Joseph Shippen’s “Lines Written in an Assembly Room” we find a graceful picture of the beauties of the ante-Revolutionary period. “Fair, charming Swift,” the eldest daughter of John Swift, who afterwards became Mrs. Livingston; “lovely White,” a sister of Bishop White, who, as Mrs. Robert Morris, was the chosen friend of Mrs. Washington while in Philadelphia; “sweet, smiling, fair M’Call;” Katharine Inglis; Polly Franks, an elder daughter of David Franks; Sally Coxe, who married Andrew Allen, the loyalist; and Chews so fair that Mr. Shippen cannot decide which is the fairer. Two of these bewildering sisters, Mary and Elizabeth Chew, married respectively Alexander Wilcocks and Edward Tilghman. Another poet, of a period a little later than this, happening to pick up a knot of ribbon dropped by Miss Chew on the ball-room floor, thus descants upon her charms: “If I mistake not--’tis the accomplish’d Chew, To whom this ornamental bow is due; Its taste like hers, so neat, so void of art-- Just as her mind and gentle as her heart. I haste to send it--to resume its place, For beaux should sorrow o’er a bow’s disgrace.” It does not appear to have taken great inspirations to set the muse to rhyming in those days. Mr. John Swanwick seems always to have found his prompt to obey his call, and whether he is disappointed in a walk with Miss Markoe, or whether he takes such a walk; whether it is Miss Meredith’s canary-bird that dies or the great astronomer David Rittenhouse, all alike give wings to his Pegasus. He lends Miss Abby Willing his Biographical Dictionary, and with it encloses a dozen verses or more on those inscribed in this “splendid roll of fame.” Another occasion of poetic inspiration is when tears are observed to stream down a young lady’s cheek on listening to a sermon from the Rev. William White. Must it not have been delightful to possess such a fancy?