Byron's Notes to English Bards and Scotch Reviewers

Line 2: His creaking couplets in a tavern hall.
Imit. 'Semper ego auditor tantum? nunquamne, reponam,
Vexatus toties rauci Theseide Codri?' --
          JuV. Sat. I.

Mr. Fitzgerald, facetiously termed by Cobbett the 'Small-Beer Poet,' inflicts his annual tribute of verse on the Literary Fund: not content with writing, he spouts in person, after the company have imbibed a reasonable quantity of bad port, to enable them to sustain the operation.

Line 21: Our task complete, like Hamet's shall be free.
Cid Hamet Benengeli promises repose to his pen, in the last chapter of Don Quixote. Oh! that our voluminous gentry would follow the example of Cid Hamet Benengeli!

Line 56: Fail'd to preserve the spurious farce from shame.
This ingenious youth is mentioned more particularly, with his production, in another place.

Line 57: No matter, George continues still to write.
In the Edinburgh Review.

Line 82: By Jeffrey's heart, or Lambe's Boeotian head.
Messrs. Jeffrey and Lambe are the alpha and omega, the first and last, of the Edinburgh Review; the others are mentioned hereafter.

Line 87: While these are censors, 'twould be sin to spare.
Imit. 'Stulta est Clentia, cum tot ubique
-- Occurras perituræ parcere chartæ.'
          Juv. Sat. I

Line 93: Then should you ask me, why I venture o'er.
Imit. 'Cur tamen hoc libeat potius decurrere campo
Per quem magnus equos Auruncæ flexit alumnus:
Si vacat, et placidi rationem admittitis edam.
          Juv. Sat. I

Line 140: From soaring Southey down to grovelling Stott.
Stott, better known in the 'Morning Post' by the name of Hafiz. This personage is at present the most profound explorer of the bathos. I remember, when the reigning family left Portugal, a special Ode of Master Stott's, beginning thus: -- (Stott loquitur quoad Hibernia) --

'Princely offspring of Braganza
Erin greets thee with a stanza,' &c.

Also a Sonnet to Rats, well worthy of the subject, and a most thundering Ode, commencing as follows: --

'Oh! for a Lay! loud as the surge
That lashes Lapland's sounding shore.'

Lord have mercy on us! the 'Lay of the Last Minstrel' was nothing to this.

Line 153: Thus Lays of Minstrels -- may they be the last --
See the 'Lay of the Last Minstrel,' passim. Never was any plan so incongruous and absurd as the groundwork of this production. The entrace of Thunder and Lightning, prolguising to Bayes' tragedy, unfortunately takes away the merit of originality from the dialogue between Messieurs the Spirits of Flood and Fell in the first canto. Then we have the amiable William of Deloraine, 'a stark moss-trooper,' videlicet, a happy compound of poacher, sheep-stealer, and highwayman. The propriety of his magical lady's injunction not to read can only be equalled by his candid acknowledgment of his independence of the trammels of spelling, although, to use his own elegant phrase, ' 'twas his neck-verse at Harribee,' i.e. the gallows. -- The biography of Gilpin Horner, and the marvelous pedestrian page, who travelled twice as fast as his master's horse, without the aid of seven-leagued boots, are chefs-de'oeuvre in the improvement of taste. For incident we have the invisible, but by no means sparing, box on the ear bestowed on the page, and the entrance of a knight and charger into the castle, under the very natural disguise of a wain of hay. Marmion, the hero of the latter romance, is exactly what William of Deloraine would have been, had he been able to read and write. The poem was manufactured for Messrs. Constable, Murray, and Miller, worshipful booksellers, in consideration of the receipt of a sum of money; and truly, considering the inspiration, it is a very creditable production. If Mr. Scott will write for hire, let him do his best for his paymasters, but not disgrace his genius, which is undoubtedly great, by a repetition of black-letter ballad imitations.

Line 184: And bid a "long good night to Marmion."
'Good night to Marmion.' -- the pathetic and also prophetic exclamation of Henry Blount, Esquire, on the death of honest Marmion.

Line 194: The single wonder of a thousand years.
As the Odyssey is so closely connected with the story of the Iliad, they may almost be classed as one grand historical poem. In alluding to Milton and Tasso, we consider the 'Paradise Lost,' and 'Gierusalemme Liberata,' as their standard efforts; since neither the 'Jerusalem Conquered' of the Italian, nor the 'Paradise Regained' of the English bard, obtained a proportionate celebrity to their former poems. Query: Which of Mr Southey's will survive?

Line 211: Next see tremendous Thalaba come on
'Thalaba,' Mr Southey's second poem, is written in open defiance of precedence and poetry. Mr. S. wished to produce something novel, and succeeded to a miracle. 'Joan of Arc' was marvellous enough, but 'Thalaba' was one of those poems 'which,' in the words of Porson, 'will be read when Homer and Virgil are forgotten, but -- not till then.

Line 225: O! Southey! Shouthey! cease thy varied song!
We beg Mr. Southey's pardon: 'Madoc disdains the degrading title of epic.' See his preface. Why is epic degraded? and by whom? Certainly the late romaunts of Masters Cottle, Laureat Pye, Ogilvy, Hole, and gentle Mistress Cowley, have not exalted the epic muse; but, as Mr. Southey's poem 'disdains the appellation,' allow us to ask -- has he substituted anything better in its stead? or must he be content to rival Sir Richard Blackmore in the quantity as well as quality of his verse?

Line 232: Thou wilt devote old women to the devil.
See 'The old Woman of Berkeley,' a ballad, by Mr. Southey, wherein an aged gentlewoman is carrried away by Beelzebub, on a 'high-trotting horse.'

Line 234: "God help thee," Southey, and thy readers too.
The last line, 'God help thee,' is an evident plagiarism from the Anti-jacobin to Mr. Southey, on his Dactylics.

Line 240: And quit his books, for fear of growing double.
Lyical Ballads, p. 4. -- 'The Tables Turned.' Stanza I.

'Up, up, my friend and clear your looks;
    Why all this toil and trouble?
Up, up, my friend, and quit your books,
    Or surely you'll grow double.'

Line 250: And, like his bard, confounded night with day.'
Mr. W. in his preface labours hard to prove, that prose and verse are much the same; and certainly his precepts and practice are strictly conformable: --

'And thus to Betty's questions he
Made answer, like a traveller bold,
The cock did crow, to-whoo, to-whoo,
And the sun did shine so cold,' &c. &c.

Line 260: To him who takes a pixy for a muse.
Coleridge's Poems, P. 11, 'Songs of the Pixies, i.e. Devonshire Fairies;' p. 42 we have 'Lines to a young Lady;' and p. 52, 'lines to a young Ass.'

Line 273: All hail, M.P.! from whose infernal brain
'For every one knows little Matt's an M.P.' See a poem to Mr. Lewis, in 'The Statesman,' supposed to be written by Mr. Jekyll.

Line 297: Hibernian Strangford! with thine eyes of blue.
The reader, who may wish for an explanation of this, may refer to 'Strangford's Camoëns,' p. 127. note to p. 56, or to the last page of the Edinburgh Review of Strangford's Camoëns.

Line 304: By dressing Camoëns in a suit of lace?
It is also to be remarked, that the things given to the public as poems of Camoëns are no more to be found in the original Portuguese than in the Song of Solomon.

Line 318: That luckless music never triumph'd there.
Hayley's two most notorious verse productions are 'Triumphs of Temper,' and 'The Triumph of Music.' He has also written much comedy of rhymes, epistles, &c. &c.. As he is rather an elegant writer of notes and biography, let us recommend Pope's advice to Wycherley to Mr. H's consideration, viz. 'to convert poetry into prose,' which may be easily done by taking away the final syllable of each couplet.

Line 321: Sepulchral Grahame, pours his notes sublime.
Mr. Grahame has poured forth two voumes of cant, under the name of 'Sabbath Walks' and 'Biblical Pictures.'

Line 336: What merry sounds proceed from Oxford Bells.
See Bowles 'Sonnet to Oxford,' and 'Stanzas on hearing the Bells of Ostend.'

Line 351: Awake a louder and a loftier strain.
'Awake a louder,' &c., is the first line in Bowles' 'Spirit of Discovery;' a very spirited and pretty dwarf-epic. Among other exquisite lines we have the following

--- 'A kiss Stole on the list'ning silence, never yet
Here heard; they trembled even as if the power,'
&c. &c.

That is, the woods of Madeira trembled to a kiss; very much astonished, as well they might be, at such a phenomenon.

Line 358: The bard sighs forth a gentle episode.
The episode above alluded to is the story of 'Robert à Machin' and 'Anna d' Arfet' a pair of constant lovers, who performed the kiss above mentioned, that startled the woods of Madeira.

Line 372: Consult Lord Fanny, and confide in Curll.
Curll is one of the heroes of the Dunciad, and was a bookseller. Lord Fanny is the poetical name of Lord Hervey, author of 'Lines to the Imitator of Horace.'

Line 378: And do from hate what Mallet did for hire.
Lord Bolingbroke hired Mallet to traduce Pope after his decease, because the poet had retained some copies of a work by Lord Bolingbroke -- the 'Patriot King,' -- which that splendid but malignant genius had ordered to be destroyed.

Line 380: To rave with Dennis, and with Ralph to rhyme.
Dennis the critic, and Ralph the Rhymster. --

'Silence, ye wolves! while Ralph to Cynthia howls,
Making night hideous: answer him ye owls!'

Line 384: And link'd thee to the Dunciad for thy pains.
See Bowles's late edition of Pope's works, for which he received three hundred pounds. Thus Mr. B. has experienced how much easier it it to profit by the reputation of another, than to elevate his own.

Line 406: Had Cottle still adorn'd the counter's side.
Mr. Cottle, Amos, Joseph, I don't know which, but one or both, once sellers of books they did not write, and now writers of books they do not sell, have published a pair of epics -- 'Alfred,' (poor Alfred! Pye has been at him too!) -- 'Alfred,' and the 'Fall of Cambria.'

Line 414: Dull Maurice all his granite weight of leaves.
Mr. Maruice hath manufactured the component parts of a ponderous quarto, upon the beauties of 'Richmond Hill,' and the like: -- it also takes in a charming view of Turnham Green, Hammersmith, Brentford, Old and New, and the parts adjacent.

Line 425: May no rude hand disturb their early sleep!
Poor Montgomery, though praised by every English Review, has been bitterly reviled by the Edinburgh. After all, the bard of Sheffield is a man of considerable genius. His 'Wanderer of Switzerland' is worth a thousand 'Lyrical Bllads,' and at least fifty 'degraded epics.'

Line 437: Nor hunt the blood-hounds back to Arthur's seat?
Arthur's Seat; the hill which overhangs Edinburgh.

Line 466: When Little's leadless pistol met his eye.
In 1806, Messrs. Jeffrey and Moore met at Chalk-Farm. The duel was prevented by the interference of the magistracy; and, on examination, the balls fo the pistols were found to have evaporated. This incident gave occasion to much waggery in the daily prints.

Line 473: The other half pursued its calm career.
The Tweed here behaved with proper decorum; it would have been highly reprehensible in the English half of the river to have shown the smallest symptom of apprehension.

Line 479: If Jeffrey died, exept within her arms.
This display of sympathy on the part of the Tolbooth (the principal prison of Edinburgh), which truly seems to have been most affected on this occasion, is much to be commended. It was to be apprehended, that the many unhappy criminals executed in the front might have rendered to edifice more callous. She is said to be of the softer sex, because her delicacy of feeling on this day was truly feminine, though, like most feminine impulses, perhaps a little selfish.

Line 509: The travell'd thane, Athenian Aberdeen.
His lordship has been much abroad, is a member of the Atenian Society, and reviewer of 'Gell's Topography of Troy.'

Line 510: Herbert shall weild Thor's hammer, and sometimes
Mr. Herbert is a translator of Icelandic and other p oetry. One of the principal pieces is a 'Song of the Recovery of Thor's Hammer:' the song translation is a pleasant chant in the vulgar tongue, and endeth thus:

'Instead of money and rings, I wot,
The hammer's bruises were her lot.
Thus Odin's son his hammer got.'

Line 512: Smug Sydney too they bitter page shall seek.
The Rev. Sydney Smith, the reputed author of Peter Plymley's Letters, and sundry criticisms.

Line 513: And classic Hallam, much renown'd for Greek.
Mr. Hallam reviewed Payne Knight's 'Taste,' and was exceedingly severe on some Greek verses therein. It was not discovered that the lines were Pindar's till the press rendered it impossible to cancel the critique, which still stands an everlasting monument of Hallam's ingenuity. -- Note added to second edition. The said Hallam is incensed because he is falsely accused, seeing that he never dineth at Holland House. If this be true, I am sorry -- not for having said so, but on his account, as I understand his lordship's feasts are preferable to his compositions. If he did not review Lord Holland's performance, I am glad; because it must have been painful to read, and irksome to praise it. If Mr. Hallam will tell who did review it, the real name shall find a place in the text; provided, nevertheless, the said name be of two orthodox musical syllables, and will come into the verse: till then, Hallam must stand for want of a better.

Line 515: And paltry Pillans shall traduce his friend.
Pillans is a tutor at Eton.

Line 516: While gay Thalia's luckless votary, Lambe
The Hon. George Lambe reviewd "Beresford's Miseries,' and is, moreover, author of a farce enacted with much applause at the Priory, Stanmore; and damned with great expedition at the late theatre, Covent Garden. It was entitled, 'Whistle for It.'

Line 524: Beware lest bludering Brougham destroy the sale.
Mr. Brougham, in No. XXV of the Edinburgh Review, throughout the article concering Don Pedro de Cevallos, has displayed more politics than policy; many of the worthy burgesses of Edinburgh being so incensed at the infamous principles it evinces, as to have withdrawn their subscriptions. It seems that Mr. Brougham is not a Pict, as I supposed, but a Borderer, and his name is pronounnced Broom from Trent to Tay: -- so be it.

Line 527: Her son, and vanish'd in a Scottish mist.
I ought to apolgize to the worthy deities for introducing a new goddess with short petticoats to their notice: but, alas! what was to be done? I could not say Caledonia's genius, it being well known there is no such genius to be found from Clackmannan to Caithness; yet, without supernatural agency, how was Jeffrey to be saved? The national 'kelpies' are too unpoetical, and the 'brownies' and 'gude neighbours' (spirits of a good disposition) refused to extricate him. A goddess, therefore, has been called for the purpose; and great ought to be the gratitude of Jeffrey, seeing it is the only communication he ever held, or is likely to hold, with anything heavenly.

Line 535: This scents its pages, and that gilds its rear.
See the colour of the back binding of the Edinburgh Review.

Line 542: Declare his landlord can at least translate!
Lord Holland has translaged some specimens of Lope de Varga, inserted in his lfie of this author. Both are bepraised by his disinterested guests.

Line 559: Reforms each error, and refines the whole.
Certain it is, her ladyship is suspected of having displayed her matchless wit in the Edinburgh Review. However that may be, we know from good authority that the manuscripts are submitted to her perusal -- no doubt, for correction.

Line 562: Puns, and a prince with a barrel pent.
In the melo-drama of Tekeli, that heroic prince is clapt into a barrel on the stage; a new asylum for distressed heroes.

Line 568: While Reynolds vents his "dammes!!" "poohs!" and "zounds!"
All these are favourite expressions of Mr. Reynolds, and prominent in his comedies, living and defunct.

Line 573: A tragedy complete in all but words.
Mr. T. Sheridan, the new manager of Drury Lane theatre, stripped the tragedy of Bonduca of the dialgue, and exhibited the scenes as the specctable of Caractacus. Was this worthy of his sire? or of himself?

Line 601: Her flight to garnish Greenwood's gay designs.
Mr. Greenwood is, we believe, scene-painter to Drury Lane theatre -- as such, Mr Skeffington is much indebted to him.

Line 603: In five facetious acts comes thundering on.
Mr Skeffington is the illustrious author of the 'Sleeping Beauty;' and some comedies, particularly 'Maids and Bachelors:' Baccalaurii baculo magis quam lauro digni.

Line 615: And worship Catalani's panaloons.
Naldi and Catalani require little notice; for the visage of the one, and the salary of the other, will enable us long to recollect these amusing vagabonds. Besides, we are still black and blue from the squeeze on the first night of the lady's appearance in trousers.

Line 639: Of vice and folly, Greville and Argyle!
To prevent any blunder, such as mistaking a street for a man, I beg leave to state that it is the institution, and not the Duke of that name, which is here alluded to. A gentleman, with whom I am slightly acquainted, lost in the Argyle Rooms several thousand pounds at backgammon. It is but justice to the manager in this instance to say, that some degree of misapprobation was manifested: but why are the implements of gaming allowed in a place devoted to the society of both sexes? A pleasant thing for the wives and daughters of those who are blest or cursed with such connections, to hear the billiard-tables rattling in one room, and the dice in another! That this is the case I myself can testify, as a late unworthy member of an institution which materially affects the morals of the higher orders, while the lower may not even move to the sound of a tabor and fiddle without a chance of indictment for riotous behavior.

Line 642: Behold the new Petronius of the day.
Petronius, "arbiter elagantiarum' to Nero, 'and a very pretty fellow in his day,' as Mr. Congreve's 'Old Bachelor' saith of Hannibal.

Line 686: To live like Clodius, and like Falkland fall.
I knew the late Lord Falkland well. On Sunday night I beheld him presiding at his own table, in all the honest pride of hospitality; on Wednesday morning at three o'clock, I saw stretched before me all that remained of courage, feeling, and a host of passions. He was a gallant and succesful officer; his faults were the faults of a sailor -- as such, Britons will forgive them. He died like a brave man in a better cause; for had he fallen in like manner on the deck of the frigate to which he was just appointed, his last moments would have been held up by his countrymen as an example to succeeding heroes.

Line 708: From silly Hafiz up to simple Bowles.
What would be the sentiments of the Persian Anacreon, Hafiz, could he rise from his splendid sepulchre at Sheeraz (where he reposes with Ferdousi and Sadi, the oriental Homer and Catullus), and behold his name assumed by one Stott of Dromore, the most impudent and execrable of literary poachers for the daily prints?

Line 732: Lord, rhymster, petit-maître, and pamphleteer!
The Earl of Carlisle has lately published an eighteenpenny pamphlet on the state of the stage, and offers his plan for building a new theatre. It is to be hoped his lordship will be permitted to bring forward anything for the stage -- except his own tragedies.

Line 740: And hang a calf-skin on those recreant lines.
Lord Carlisle's works, most resplendently bound, form a conspicuous ornament to his bookshelves: --
'The rest is all but leather and prunella.'

Line 748: And Melville's Mantle prove a blanket too!
' Melville's Mantle, ' a parody on ' Elijah's Mantle, ' a poem.

Line 758: Leave wondering comprehension far behind.
The lovely little Jessica, the daughter of the noted Jew King, seems to be a follower of the Della Crusca school, and has published two volumes of very respectable absurdities in rhyme, as times go; besides sundry novels in the style of the first edition of the Monk.

Line 764: Chain'd to the signature of O.P.Q.
These are the signatures of various worthies who figure in the poetical departments of the newspapers.

Line 774: And Capel Lofft declares 'tis quite sublime.
Capel Lofft, Esq., the Mæcenas of shoemakers, a preface-writer-general to distressed versemen; a kind of gratis accoucheur to those who wish to be delivered of rhyme, but do not know how to bring forth.

Line 782: Bloomfield! why not on brother Nathan too?
See Nathaniel Bloomfield's ode, elegy, or whatever he or any one else chooses to call it, on the enclosures of 'Honington Green.'

Line 795: May Moorland weavers boast Pindaric skill.
Vide 'Recollections of a Weaver in the Moorlands of Staffordshire.'

Line 804: Recall the pleasing memory of the past.
It would be superfluous to recall to the mind of the reader the authors of 'The Pleasures of Memory' and 'The Pleasures of Hope,' the most beautiful didactic poems in our language, if we except Pope's 'Essay on Man;' but so many poetasters have started up, that even the names of Campbell and Rogers are become strange.

Line 818: Bear witness, Gifford
Gifford, author of the Baviad and Mæviad, the first satires of the day, and translator of Juvenal.

Line 818: Sotheby
Sotheby, translator of Wieland's Oberon and Virgil's Georgics, and author of 'Saul,' an epic poem.

Line 818: Macneil
Macneil, whose poems are deservedly popular, particularly 'Scotland's Scaith,' and the 'Waes of War,' of which ten thousand copies were sold in one month.

Line 820: Why slumbers Gifford? Let us ask again.
Mr. Gifford promised publicly that the Baviad and Mæviad should not be his last original works; let him remember, 'Mox in reluctantes dracones.'

Line 831: Unhappy White! while life was in its spring.
Henry Kirke White died at Cambridge, in October, 1806, in consequence of too much exertion in the pursuit of studies that would have matured a mind which disease and poverty could not impair, and which death itself destroyed rather than subdued. His poems abound in such beauties as must impress the reader with the liveliest regret that so short a period was allotted to talents which would have dignified even the sacred functions he was destined to assume.

Line 859: And here let Shee and Genius find a place.
Mr. Shee, author of 'Rhymes on Art,' and 'Elements of Art.'

Line 877: Wright! 'twas thy happy lot once to view
Walter Rodwell Wright, late consul-general for the Seven Islands, is author of a very beautiful poem, just published: it is entitled 'Horæ Ionicæ,' and is descriptive of the isles and adjacent coast of Greece.

Line 881: And you, associate bards! who snatch'd to light
The translators of the Anthology, Bland and Merivale, have since published separate poems, which evince genius that only requires opportunity to attain eminence.

Line 902: False glare attracts, but more offends the eye.
The neglect of e 'Botanic Garden' is some proof of returning taste. The scenery is its sole recommendation.

Line 906: Seems blessed harmony to Lamb and Lloyd.
Messrs. Lamb and Lloyd, the most ignoble followers of Southey and Co.

Line 911: And thou, too, Scott! resign to minstrels rude
By the bye, I hope that in Mr. Scott's next poem, his hero or heroine will be less addicted to 'Gramarye,' and more to grammar, than the Lady of the Lay and her bravo, William of Deloraine.

Line 927: Let Stott, Carlisle, Matilda, and the rest
It may be asked, why I have censured the Earl of Carlisle, my guardian and relative, to whom I dedicated a volume of puerile poems, a few years ago? -- The guardianship was nominal, at least as far as I have been able to discover; the relationship I cannot help, and am very sorry for it; but as his lordship seemed obliged to forget it on a very essential occasion to me, I shall not burden my memory with the recollection. I do not think that personal differences sanction the unjust condemnation of a brother scribbler; but I see no reason why they should act as a preventative, when the author, noble or ignoble, has, for a series of years, beguiled a 'discerning public' (as the advertisements have it) with divers reams of most orthodox, imperial nonsense. Besides, I do not step aside to vituperate the earl: no -- his works come fairly in review with those of other patrician literati. If, before I escaped from my teens, I said anything in favour of his lordship's paper books, it was in the way of dutiful dedication, and more from the advice of others than my own judgment, and I seize the first opportunity of pronouncing my sincere recantation. I have heard that some persons conceive me to be under obligations to Lord Carlisle; if so, I shall be most particularly happy to learn what they are, and when conferred, that they may be duly appreciated and publicly acknowledged. What I have humbly advanced as an opiion on his printed things, I am prepared to support, if necessary, by quotations from elegies, eulogies, odes, episodes, and certain facetious and dainty tragedies bearing his name and mark: --
'What can ennoble knaves, or fools, or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.'
So says Pope. Amen!

Line 968: Requires no sacred theme to bid us list.
The 'Games of Hoyle,' well known to the votaries of whist, chess, &c., are not to be superseded by the vagaries of his political namesake, whose poem comprised, as expressly stated in the advertisement, all the 'plagues of Egypt.'

Line 980: Himself a living libel on mankind.
This person, who has lately betrayed the most rabid symptoms of confirmed authorship, is writer of a gem denominated the 'Art of Pleasing,' as 'lucus a non lucendo,' containing little pleasantry and less poetry. He also acts as monthly stipendiary and collector of calumnies for the 'Satirist.' If this unfortunate young man would exchange the magazines for the mathematics, and endeavour to take a decent degree in his university, it might eventually prove more serviceable than his present salary.

Line 981: Oh! dark asylum of a Vandal race!
'Into Cambridgeshire the Emperor Probus transported a considerable body of Vandals.' -- Gibbon's Decline and Fall, vol. ii. p. 83. There is no reason to doubt the truth of this assertion; the breed is still in high perfection.

Line 983: So lost to Phoebus, that nor Hodgson's verse
This gentleman's name requires no praise: the man who in translation displays unquestionable genius may be well expected to excel in original composition, of which, it is to be hoped, we shall soon see a splendid speciman.

Line 984: Can make thee better, nor poor Hewson's worse.
Hewson Clarke, Esq., as it is written.

Line 990: And modern Britons glory in their sires.
The 'Aboriginal Britons,' an excellent poem, by Richards.

Line 1016: And old dame Portland fills the place of Pitt.
A friend of mine being asked, why his Grace of Portland was likened to an old woman? replied, 'he supposed it was because he was past bearing.' -- His Grace is now gathered to his grandmothers, where he sleeps as sound as ever; but even his sleep was better than his colleagues' waking. [Note added 1811.]

Line 1021: Thence shall I stray through beauty's native clime.
Georgia.

Line 1022: Where Kaff is clad in rocks, and crown'd with snows sublime.
Mount Caucasus.

Line1027: Let Aberdeen and Elgin still pursue
Lord Elgin would fain persuade us that all the figures, with and without noses, in his stoneshop, are the works of Phidias! 'Credat Judæus!'

Line 1034: Gell.
Mr. Gell's Topography of Troy and Ithaca cannot fail to insure the approbation of every man possessed of classical taste, as well for the information Mr. Gell conveys to the mind of the reader, as for the ability and research the respective works display.