All, heteroclite Dan except,
Who neither time nor order kept,20
But, by peculiar whimsies drawn,
Peeps in the ponds to look for spawn;
O'ersees the work, or Dragon[1] rows,
Or mars a text, or mends his hose;
Or — but proceed we in our journal — 25
At two, or after, we return all:
From the four elements assembling,
Warn'd by the bell, all folks come trembling[2]:
From airy garrets some descend,
Some from the lake's remotest end:30
My lord[3] and dean the fire forsake.
Dan leaves the earthy spade and rake:
The loiterers quake, no corner hides them,
And lady Betty soundly chides them.
Now water's brought, and dinner's done:35
With "Church and King" the ladies gone:
Not reckoning half an hour we pass
In talking o'er a moderate glass.
Dan, growing drowsy, like a thief
Steals off to dose away his beef;40
And this must pass for reading Hamond —
While George and Dean go to backgammon.
George, Nim, and Dean, set out at four,
And then again, boys, to the oar.
But when the sun goes to the deep45
(Not to disturb him in his sleep,
- ↑ A small boat so called.
- ↑ The dean has been censured, on an idle supposition of this passage being an allusion to the day of judgment.
- ↑ Mr. Rochfort's father was lord chief baron of the exchequer in Ireland.
