| |
| I HOPE I ’m fond of much that ’s good, | |
| As well as much that ’s gay; | |
| I ’d like the country if I could, | |
| I like the Park in May: | |
| And when I ride in Rotten Row, | 5 |
| I wonder why they called it so. | |
| |
| A lively scene on turf and road, | |
| The crowd is smartly drest: | |
| The Ladies’ Mile has overflowed, | |
| The chairs are in request: | 10 |
| The nimble air, so soft and clear, | |
| Can hardly stir a ringlet here. | |
| |
| I ’ll halt beneath these pleasant trees | |
| And drop my bridle-rein, | |
| And, quite alone, indulge at ease | 15 |
| The philosophic vein: | |
| I ’ll moralize on all I see,— | |
| I think it all was made for me! | |
| |
| Forsooth, and on a nicer spot | |
| The sunbeam never shines; | 20 |
| Young ladies here can talk and trot | |
| With statesmen and divines: | |
| Could I have chosen, I ’d have been | |
| A Duke, a Beauty, or a Dean! | |
| |
| What grooms! what gallant gentlemen! | 25 |
| What well-appointed hacks! | |
| What glory in their pace,—and then | |
| What beauties on their backs! | |
| My Pegasus would never flag | |
| If weighted as my lady’s nag. | 30 |
| |
| But where is now that courtly troop | |
| Who once rode laughing by? | |
| I miss the curls of Cantilupe, | |
| The smile of Lady Di: | |
| They all could laugh from night to morn, | 35 |
| And Time has laughed them all to scorn. | |
| |
| I then could frolic in the van | |
| With dukes and dandy earls; | |
| I then was thought a nice young man | |
| By rather nice young girls; | 40 |
| I ’ve half a mind to join Miss Browne, | |
| And try one canter up and down. | |
| |
| Ah, no! I ’ll linger here awhile, | |
| And dream of days of yore; | |
| For me bright eyes have lost the smile, | 45 |
| The sunny smile they wore:— | |
| Perhaps they say, what I ’ll allow, | |
| That I ’m not quite so handsome now. | |
| |
