Would take me in his coach to chat,
And question me of this and that;
As "What's o'clock?" And, "How's the wind?"
"Whose chariot's that we left behind?"90
Or gravely try to read the lines
Writ underneath the country signs[1];
Or, "Have you nothing new to day
From Pope, from Parnell, or from Gay?"
Such tattle often entertains95
My lord and me as far as Staines,
As once a week we travel down
To Windsor, and again to town,
Where all that passes inter nos
Might be proclaim'd at Charing-cross.100
Yet some I know with envy swell,
Because they see me us'd so well:
- ↑ Another of their amusements in these excursions consisted in lord Oxford and Swift's counting the poultry on the road, and which ever reckoned thirty-one first, or saw a cat, or an old woman, won the game. Bolingbroke overtaking them one day
Swift their inability to serve him. One of the most common artifices of ministers and great men is to retain in their service those whom they cannot reward, and "Spe pascere inani;" — for year after year. With whatever secrets Swift might have been trusted, it does not appear he knew anything of a design to bring in the pretender. Swift was a true whig. His political principles are amply unfolded in an excellent letter written to Pope, Jan. 20, 1721: and indeed they had been sufficiently displayed, many years before, in The Sentiments of a Church of England Man; a treatise replete with strong sense, sound principles, and clear reasoning. Dr. Warton.
101. Subjectior in diem et horam
Invidiæ.
