[304] 'L----:' Ligonier.
[305] 'Cz----'s:' Czarina's.
[306] 'P----:' Petersburg.
[307] 'Dodd:' the Rev. Dr William Dodd, the unfortunate divine,
afterwards hanged for forgery. See Boswell.
[308] 'Lepel:' Mary, daughter of Brigadier-General Le Pell, married in
1720 to John Lord Hervey.
[309] 'Caroline:' Lady Caroline Hervey was the youngest daughter of
John Lord Hervey.
INDEPENDENCE.
Happy the bard (though few such bards we find)
Who, 'bove controlment, dares to speak his mind;
Dares, unabash'd, in every place appear,
And nothing fears, but what he ought to fear:
Him Fashion cannot tempt, him abject Need
Cannot compel, him Pride cannot mislead
To be the slave of Greatness, to strike sail
When, sweeping onward with her peacock's tail,
Quality in full plumage passes by;
He views her with a fix'd, contemptuous eye, 10
And mocks the puppet, keeps his own due state,
And is above conversing with the great.
Perish those slaves, those minions of the quill,
Who have conspired to seize that sacred hill
Where the Nine Sisters pour a genuine strain,
And sunk the mountain level with the plain;
Who, with mean, private views, and servile art,
No spark of virtue living in their heart,
Have basely turn'd apostates; have debased
Their dignity of office; have disgraced, 20
Like Eli's sons, the altars where they stand,
And caused their name to stink through all the land;
Have stoop'd to prostitute their venal pen
For the support of great, but guilty men;
Have made the bard, of their own vile accord,
Inferior to that thing we call a lord.
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