Alteram laudem memorare poffum ;

Dona quæ Divi tribuêre nobis:

Cæteras præftat ratibufque, equifque Terra Coloni.

Tu decus noftrum, maris O fupreme

Rector, in tantum ftudio tulisti :

Et ferox durum quadrupes recepit

Te duce, frenum :

Navitæ remi manibufque pulfi

Incito motu volitant per æquor,

Et, velut Nymphis comites marinis,

Cærula verrunt.

OMNE, vel nummos, fuperas, Cupido ;

Excubas vultu tenero puellæ ;

Alta perluftras marium, fovefque

Pafcua læta.

Nemo te vitet gelidâ carentûm

Morte; cui vita eft fpatium diei,

Nemo queîs fubdis ftimulos, domantur

Corda furore.

Tu trahis juftos ad iniqua facta,

Trifte tu conflas odium propinquis;

Sic movet mentes oculis decora

Nubila virgo.

Judices inter, folio potenti

Affidens, mifces veneranda jura:

Hunc enim ludum Venus infolentem

Ludere gaudet.

ENGLISH POEMS.

A PRO

A PROLOGU E,

SPOKEN BEFORE THE EXERCISES AT THE BREAKING UP OF CHESTER SCHOOL, 1785.

Y mafter, who has whims (for who is clear?)

ΜΥ

Calling me forth to crave your patient ear,

Terms this his court of feffion for the year.

Commiffion'd, then, I venture to proclaim it

Oyez-a gaol-deliv'ry, fhall I name it? [ware:'-
"No, youngster, no:" He frowns, and cries Be-
But, fpite of frowns or tasks, for once I'll dare
To prove my allufion juft. Survey these walls;

Their joyless bound full many a wretch enthralls.
Here the long months, the little pris'ner fits,

Here, trembling, gnaws and cons his book by fits:

While ever and anon, the plaintive cry

Of fuff'ring brethren draws his plaintive eye.

Hard

Hard fate! but often to this blissful day,

Thro' the dull glooms of time, his wishes stray;
And, as the stick its less'ning notches fhews,

His gladden'd heart forgets its load of woes.
Again, to prove the fad allufion true,
The grate-like windows of our prifon view.

Does the full day-light hurt a school-boy's brain,
That thus it struggles thro' th' encrufted pane?

Why do thofe * envious walls the light exclude ?-
Why-truth and day-light wou'd too much intrude;
Then would the tell-tale fun, or curious eye,

This scene of fhame, and fear, and grief defcry.

Frown not, my worthy audience, at my prating : This phrafe of gaol-deliv'ry, tho' fo grating,

I'll

Many of the fchool windows have been reduced to lefs than half

of their original fize.