Page images
PDF
EPUB

Where oft the mastiff sculks with half-shut eye,
And rouses at the stranger passing by;

Whilst unrestrain'd the social converse flows,
And every breast love's powerful impulse knows,
And rival wits with more than rustic grace
Confess the presence of a pretty face.

Now noon gone by, and four declining hours,
The weary limbs relax their boasted pow'rs;
Thirst rages strong, the fainting spirits fail,
And ask the sov'reign cordial, home-brewed ale:
Beneath some shelt'ring heap of yellow corn
Rests the hoop'd keg, and friendly cooling horn,
That mocks alike the goblet's brittle frame,
Its costlier potions, and its nobler name.
To Mary first the brimming draught is given,
By toil made welcome as the dews of heaven,
And never lip that press'd its homely edge
Had kinder blessings or a heartier pledge.

THE

Lamentation of Stephen Spink,

THE

BRANDESTON POST-BOY:

BY THE REV. WILLIAM CLUBBE, LL, B.

The Rev. William Clubbe was the second son of the Rev. John Clubbe, B. A. Rector of Whatfield, and Vicar of Debenham, He was educated at Caius College, Cambridge, and admitted to the

degree of LL. B. in 1769. In the same year he was presented to the Rectory of Flowton, and to the Vicarage of Brandeston. He died at Framlingham, where he had resided for some years previous to his death, October 16th, 1814, and was buried in the church-yard of Brandeston, where, on a coffin-shaped stone, is the following inscription to his memory: The Revd. WILL CLUBBE Forty-five Years

Vicar of this Parish

Died Oct. ye 16th. 1814
Aged 69.

He was a person of considerable attainments, and, like his father, possessed of a rich fund of natural humour. In his Vicarial garden at Brandeston, he had collected together many fragments from the ancient church of Letheringham, its brasses, and monuments, and of these a Pyramid was erected by him with the following inscriptions :

"Fuimus. Indignant Reader!

These Monumental Remains

are not

(as Thou mayest suppose)

The Ruins of Time

but

were destroyed in an irruption of the Goths,
so late in the Christian Æra
as the year 1789.
Credite Posteri!!!"

[blocks in formation]

"Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
The hero perish, or the sparrow fall.”

[blocks in formation]

Mr. Clubbe's publications are, "Six Satires of Horace, in a style between Free Imitation, and Literal Version, 1795,❞ 4to. "The Epistle of Horace to the Pisos, on the Art of Poetry, 1797,". 4to. "The Omnium, 1798," 8vo. "Ver: de Agricolæ Puero, 1801," 12mo. "Agricolæ Puer, Poema Roberti Bloomfield, in Versus Latinos redditum, 1804," 8vo. "A Letter to a Country Gentleman, on the Subject of Methodism, 1805," 8vo. "Three Lyric Odes on late celebrated occasions, 1806," 4to. "An Address to the lower classes of his Parishioners, on the Subject of Methodism, 1806," 8vo. "A plain Discourse on the Subject of National Education, 1812," 12mo. "Parallel between the Characters and Conduct of Oliver Cromwell and Bonaparte," 8vo.

The following lines were originally prefaced with this Advertisement :

"To the charitable and the uncharitable; to Christians, Jews, "Turks, Infidels, and Heretics, Stephen Spink, Post-boy of Brandeston, begs leave to state a loss he has lately sustained in "the nearest relation he had in the world, his only ass.

[ocr errors]

"Too modest to dwell upon any merits of his own, he begs "leave to solicit your charity for those of the deceased animal.

:

"Of Christians then he is bold to ask, because an ass once "carried the divine author of their religion of Jews, because he "comes the nearest to them of any brute in the creation, in their "obstinacy of Turks, because he is the parent of their favorite "mule: and of Infidels and Heretics, because of his resemblance "to them in stupidity.

:

"With the truly charitable he is sensible no arguments are "wanted, and that with the uncharitable none will prevail. For "the first, therefore, as in duty bound, he will ever pray; to the 66 latter, however unbecoming the mouth of a petitioner, he begs "leave to say they may kiss the mark of Stephen Spink.

GOOD people all, attend, I pray,

And listen to my ditty;

For what poor Stephen has to say
Will soon excite your pity.

Both lame and blind he could not pass

A snail, so slow was he;

Till mounted on his dapper ass,

He flew like Mercury.

Oft has he gone, when sent express,
For newspaper or letter,

Within six hours and sometimes less,

Four miles and rather better.

Such was the speed with which he went,
That he was call'd by most,

Who by his bag their letters sent,

The Brand'ston flying post.

But see him now, poor

fallen man!

On foot, and forced to crawl

As crooked, and no faster than

A snail upon the wall.

You, who have legs to walk upon,
Two legs, and want no more;
Pity the wretch that has but one,
And set him upon four.

Then on his ass will Stephen ride,
And wish for nothing higher;
Nor envy the equestrian pride
Of vicar or of squire.

So shall your humble post-boy thrive,
So blithe his hours shall pass,
That none in Brand'ston town shall live
Like Stephen and his ass.

THE

PLOUGHMAN'S FEASTING DAYS:

BY THOMAS TUSSER.

"The Five Hundred Points of Husbandry" abound with many curious particulars, that bespeak the manners, customs, aud modes of living in this county, from the year 1520 to about half a century after.

Though popery was legally abolished at the period when this was written; yet protestants did not. think it necessary, as a pledge of their reformation, to renounce those festive, or fasting days, which it had either recommended or tolerated. Among the former, the "Ploughman's Feasting Days" seem to have been duly observed, either partially or generally, throughout most parts of England, in our author's time; and in recommending "old guise "to be kept," he certainly, in this respect at least, did not deviate from his protestant creed.

« PreviousContinue »