Page:Poetical Works of John Oldham.djvu/209

Nay, while 'tis burning, some will send him in
Timber, and stone to build his house again;
Others choice furniture; some rare piece
Of Rubens, or Vandyke presented is;
There a rich suit of Mortlack tapestry,
A bed of damask or embroidery;
One gives a fine scrutoire, or cabinet,
Another a huge massy dish of plate,
Or bag of gold: thus he at length gets more
By kind misfortune than he had before;
And all suspect it for a laid design,
As if he did himself the fire begin.
Could you but be advised to leave the town,
And from dear plays, and drinking friends be drawn,
A handsome dwelling might be had in Kent,
Surrey, or Essex, at a cheaper rent
Than what you're forced to give for one half year
To lie, like lumber, in a garret here.
A garden there, and well, that needs no rope,
Engine, or pains to crane its waters up;
Water is there through Nature's pipes conveyed,
For which no custom or excise is paid.
Had I the smallest spot of ground, which scarce
Would summer half a dozen grasshoppers,
Not larger than my grave, though hence remote
Far as St. Michael's Mount, I would go to't,
Dwell there content, and thank the Fates to boot.
’Here want of rest a-nights more people kills
Than all the college, and the weekly bills;
Where none have privilege to sleep, but those
Whose purses can compound for their repose.
In vain I go to bed, or close my eyes,
Methinks the place the middle region is,
Where I lie down in storms, in thunder rise;
The restless bells such din in steeples keep,
That scarce the dead can in their churchyards sleep;
Huzzas of drunkards, bellmen's midnight rhymes,
The noise of shops, with hawker's early screams,