THE AIR-BALLOON.

A PIC-NIC ODE, BY BARDD CLOFF. JULY 6, 1802.

HENCEFORTH to France let Britain yield
The glorious point of caftle-building;-
But not thofe uncouth fabrics fhielding
Rebellious Lords, or Barons bold,

As witness'd oft in days of old,

Where steel clad Knights were wont to wield
With giant-arm the maffy lance!

No-hor thofe caftles ftately floating
On the vaft deep with fails unfurl'd,
The admiration of the world!
Built (by many a skilful stroke)
Of native British heart of oak:

The palm in these I'm not for voting
So condefcendingly to France;

But yet (to give the Dev'l his due, is fair)
The French can always best build cafiles in the air!
Soar high, my mufe, and try to follow
Fam'd Garnerin's aerial flight;

Exert thy nimbleft wings aright,

Or his balloon will beat thee hollow!
Behold, he mounts his fwinging car,
Join'd by a gallant British tar:
Triumphant they afcend together,
In fpite of envious wind or weather.
Lo! high among the tow'ring clouds,
Now like a brace of Gods they ride!
Feafting-not on the empty air-
But fumptuofly on pic-nic fare!
Whilft their proud waving flags deride
Earth's creeping things--the gazing crowds!!
To them St. Paul's majestic dome
Soon feems diminisli'd to a guát;
Ten thousand feet aloft they roam,

* M. Garnerin in his advertisement faid, that he would pofitively afcend on the day appointed, in fpite of wind or weather.

Swift as an eagle in purfuit of prey,
Cutting through tracklefs air an eafy way,
Yet e'en can hear our goffips chat!
Or, with keen eye, behold a wren or thrush
Perch'd on a spray of Epping's gooseb'ry-bush * !
The angry clouds, although unable
To cope with the undaunted flying pair,
That dar'd t' invade the regions of the air;
Difcharg'd their ire on thofe below,
Who came in crowds to see the show,
And drench'd alike the haplefs muflin'd fair,
The fqueamish beau, and motley rabble.
Affembled for a precious stare!

Who 'gainst the ruthlefs vengeance of the rain
Sought shelter from their filken Shields in vain.
But now, my mufe, defcend, and change thy tune;
Now muft thou chant of things below-
Sing of difafters full of woe!

Like those beheld the famous fourth of June †,
When London's gallant volunteers
(Defpifing all ill-natur'd fneers,
With banners waving in the air,
Wrought by their leaders' ladies fair)
So bravely ftood their ground in arms
Against most dire and dreads alarms-
Till Gen'ral Rain's fuperior force

Caus'd the brave gay-clad ranks to yield;

Made ev'ry woman, man, and horse,
Fly from the delug'd flipp'ry field;

Forc'd many heroes, highly tir'd,

To ufe the musket for a prop;
Whilft others faint and hungry fir'd
Pop-pop-pop!

Thus now amongst the gazing throng
A fcene commenc'd of uproar dire,
The dripping fair ones tripp'd along,

Up to their tott'ring knees in mire!

*See Capt. Sowden's Narrative, European Magazine, July 1802, P. 24.

The grand review in Hyde Park the 4th of June 1800.

Their robes clung like tranfparent paste,
Clofe as a leech to the flim waist,
Difplaying forms--man's foul to charm!

What heart from love could then refrain?
They made the ftoic's bofom warm,
Amid the chilling wind and rain.

A finer treat, to peeping beaux, by far,
Than see the Frenchman mount th' aerial car!
As towards home the groups repair'd,
All eyes upon them rudely ftar'd,
Yea fome, who were not of the crowd,
Malicioufly would laugh aloud!

The milliners-thofe pretty little thieves,

Smil'd too, with countenances quite bewitching!
And many tailors, grinning in their fleeves,
Were seen, as on the fhopboards they fat ftitching.
New caps, new gowns, new coats, all feem'd to fay,
Muft now become the order of the day.
The doctors too, whofe primnefs fcare ye,
And ev'ry stiff-back'd 'pothecary,

Had vifibly fome lively traces

Of joy indented in their faces.

Some counted what they'd gain by cold,

And agues that would foon abound,

In pieces of most precious gold,

To the sweet tune of many a pound!

And thus th' aerial flow a charming thing was found!

SIR,

[From the Oracle.]

AS the public prints have lately noticed the interviews of crowned heads, and other great perfonages, I hope they will not pafs over in filence a meeting that took place on Saturday morning laft, between a King and Queen of celeftial origin and regal fplendour, Sol and Luna-the God of Day, and the Goddefs of Night-as they are called in the language of mythology. I must now ftep off my ftilts a little,

and

and speak in plain English. The eclipfe which I allude to was one of the finest ever beheld; the immensity of the theatre, the ferenity of the air, and the delicate texture of the clouds, united to render the fpectacle at once beautiful and fublime. Your air-balloon funk to foap fud bubbles, when compared to it; and Cleopatra failing down the filver Cydnus, with all her golden ftreamers waving in the wind, could not be compared to the many-liveried clouds with which the eastern: cope of heaven was hung. The crowd was fo great, that I fuppofe the fun fcarcely ever boasted fo numerous a levee at fo early an hour. I cannot fay it was felect; but if variety be the motto of human nature, I know of no place, not even Bartholomew Fair excepted, where it was ever carried to fo great an extent.

I took my ftand in a group at a corner of Lincoln's Inn Fields. The visible duration. lafted upwards of an hour; and, if viewed through Galileo's eye, or Herfchel's, the conteft, if I may fo call it, would have been extremely interefting. The fun, however, at length emerged in fuch majefty, that he seemed to fay "Extinguo lumine lumen," whilft the Moon, in her turn, exclaimed "Recedo non concedo." If my eyes were feafted with the fight, my ears were not a little regaled with the converfation of thofe around me. The beams of content played from countenance to countenance, except that of one alone, a vinegarvifaged lady, who lamented that she was not in time for the conjunction, as it was the only one fhe had ever miffed in her life. A middle-aged man, who appeared to have tafted all the comforts of matrimony, wifhed that an eclipfe would happen every day in the year, as it would be the means of enticing his wife out of bed. "Bed!" (quoth a little fmart woman, re-echoing the found), I left my husband. falt afleep this morning; but, unfortunately, the maid fleeps on the fame floor."

Offering

Offering my glafs to a young Irishman who was very attentive to the ladies, he declined its acceptance; as he faid his fight was fo good, that he faw Garnerin's air-balloon, when it was out of fight; adding, with a fmile, that he had seen a thousand eclipfes, vifible and invifible.

I was at length thrown by a fhove within ear-fhot of a tall, meagre figure, as thin as if he had fed on Godwin's metaphyfics, and who feemed to have repofed that night-al frefco-on a ftall in Covent Garden. One of the crowd whifpered, that he was a poet. I thought fo by his air and drefs." Nay, faid he, refuming his difcourfe, as I approached the fpot where he ftood, "eclipfes on earth are numerous -a Dutchefs endeavours to eclipfe a Marchionefs-a Marchionefs a Countefs-a Countefs a Baronefs-and. a Baronefs the lady of a fimple Knight. I have also feen," continued he, " a pair of black eyes eclipfe a pair of blue eyes, though blue is of celeftial hue. Now, the finest images and metaphors are taken from the heavenly bodies; and the hiftorians are as fond of telling lies, as the poets are fond of allufions to the two refplendent orbs that you have just seen contending in the heavens.

"Now I know of no two things to which a fashionable pair may be fo aptly compared, as the fun and moon-Let us fuppofe that Don Phoebus is the spouse, and Madam Phoebe the fpoufefs.-A woman of fashion, like the moon, feldom goes to bed till her husband rifes a woman of fashion is often in the vapours; so is the moon a woman of fashion fometimes appears in a hoop fo does the moon-a woman of fashion changes twenty times a day; the moon once a month. As to borns, I'll pafs that over; but it is well known that a woman of fashion never fhines to fuch advantage as in oppofition to her husband; and, when. the moon fhines in full oppofition to the fun, then her orb is completely