And over the hill, and over the dale, He walk'd, and over the plain; And backwards and forwards he switch'd his long tail, As a gentleman switches his cane. And pray how was the Devil drest? O! he was in his Sunday's best; His coat was red, and his breeches were blue, With a little hole behind, where his tail came through. He saw a lawyer killing a viper, On a dunghill, beside his own stable; And the Devil smiled, for it put him in mind Of Cain and his brother Abel. An apothecary, on a white horse, Rode by on his avocations "Oh!" says the Devil," there's my old friend Death in the revelations !" He saw a cottage, with a double coach-house; A cottage of gentility! And the Devil was pleased, for his darling vice He stepp'd into a rich bookseller's shop; As he pass'd through Cold-Bath-Fields, he saw And the Devil was charm'd, for it gave him a hint For improving the prisons of hell. He saw a turnkey in a trice Fetter a troublesome jade; "Ah! nimble," quoth he, " do the fingers move When they're used to their trade." He saw the same turnkey unfetter the same, And the Devil thought on the long debates On the Slave Trade Abolition. Down the river did glide, with wind and with tide, A pig, with vast celerity! And the Devil grinn'd, for he saw all the while He saw a certain minister (A minister to his mind) Go up into a certain house, With a majority behind. The Devil quoted Genesis, Like a very learned clerk, How "Noah, and his creeping things, General Gascoigne's burning face He saw with consternation, And back to Hell his way did take; For the Devil thought, by a slight mistake, 'Twas the General Conflagration!1 One evening, at the house of the late Dr. Vincent, Professor Porson, being cut out at a whist table, was about to take his leave. Mrs. Vincent pressed him to stay, saying, "I know you will not stay, if you are doing nothing; but the rubber will soon be over, when you may go in; and, in the meantime, take a pen and ink at another table, and write us some verses." Dr. Vincent, in the midst of the game, seconded this request, and added, "I will give a subject. You shall suppose that the Devil is come up among us, to see what we are doing, and you shall tell us what observations he makes." Porson obeyed these injunctions, and this amusing jeud'esprit was the result. The Devil's Walk, with additions, has been claimed also for Coleridge and Southey. DELIA'S POCKET HANDKERCHIEF.1 ROBERT SOUTHEY. IS mine! what accents can my joy declare? I envy not the joy the pilgrim feels When first with filching fingers I drew near, What tho' the eighth commandment rose to mind, Here when she took the macaroons from me, Lips sweeter than the macaroons she eat. This is one of the "Love Elegies of Abel Shufflebottom." And when she took that pinch of Macabaw, No washerwoman's filthy hand shall e'er, A CONJUGAL CONUNDRUM. [FROM PUNCH.] HICH is of greater value, prythee, say, The Bride or Bridegroom?-must the truth be told? Alas, it must! The Bride is given away— The Bridegroom's often regularly sold. 600 COOL REFLECTIONS. ROBERT SOUTHEY. SPARE me-spare me, Phoebus! if, indeed, Drive earthwards thy fierce steeds and fiery ear; No shelter! not a breath of stirring air, East, West, or North, or South! Dear god of day, |