550
en to Cheltenham, I find, And, zounds! you really ride the wind, To Bath and Worcester too; To South'ton and the Isle of Wight, As if increase of appetite With every new dish grew.
~239
But it was really infra dig. Spite of your old horse and new gig, You did not, some fine morn, Drive up to Malcolm Ghur, d'ye see,{4} And leave two pretty cards for me And Sir John Barleycorn.
We would have been your chorus, sir, Or, an' you pleased, your trumpeter, And lioned you about; Have shown you every pretty girl, And every nouvelle quadrille twirl, And every crowded rout.
At eight o' morns have call'd you down, (What would they say of that in town?) To swallow pump-room water; At eight o' nights have call'd you up, (Our grandams used just then to sup), To 'gin the dinner slaughter.
Have whisk'd you o'er to Colonel B's, Or drove you up to Captain P's, Dons unto Cheltenham steady. But I forget the world, good lack, Have play'd enough with such a pack Of great court-cards already.
4 Malcolm Ghur, one of the very prettiest of the many pretty newly-erected mansions that give a character to the environs of Cheltenham. To its proprietor do I owe much for hospitality; a merrier man, withal, dwells not in my remembrance; he is of your first-rate whist players, though he rarely now joins in the game. As the chaplain of the county-lodge of F. M. he is much distinguished; and, at the dinners of the Friendly Brothers--which are luxurious indeed, and all for the "immortal memory" of William, king of that name, and whose portrait ornaments their reading- room--who better than he can "set the table in a roar"?
~240~~
Have set you down at ten pound whist With A-------y, and the au fait list,{5} Turning your nights to days; Or, somewhat wiser, bid you mix Where less expensive are odd tricks, And where friend R-------n plays.{6}
Have made you try a double trade, By