Poetical Works. Charles Churchill

Stood in close ranks, all entrance to oppose;

       Thistles now held more precious than the rose.

       All creatures which, on nature's earliest plan,

       Were formed to loathe and to be loathed by man, 320

       Which owed their birth to nastiness and spite,

       Deadly to touch, and hateful to the sight;

       Creatures which, when admitted in the ark,

       Their saviour shunn'd, and rankled in the dark,

       Found place within: marking her noisome road

       With poison's trail, here crawl'd the bloated toad;

       There webs were spread of more than common size,

       And half-starved spiders prey'd on half-starved flies;

       In quest of food, efts strove in vain to crawl;

       Slugs, pinch'd with hunger, smear'd the slimy wall: 330

       The cave around with hissing serpents rung;

       On the damp roof unhealthy vapour hung;

       And Famine, by her children always known,

       As proud as poor, here fix'd her native throne.

       Here, for the sullen sky was overcast,

       And summer shrunk beneath a wintry blast—

       A native blast, which, arm'd with hail and rain,

       Beat unrelenting on the naked swain,

       The boys for shelter made; behind, the sheep,

       Of which those shepherds every day take keep, 340 Sickly crept on, and, with complainings rude, On nature seem'd to call, and bleat for food.

JOCKEY.