Page:Life of Oliver Cromwell.pdf/21

 vote 'that Oliver's nose is a ruby,' they would expect you to swear it, and fight for it! We shall conclude our account of this celebrated feature, with a specimen of the poetry which it in part elicited at the time it blazed upon the worldː

Oliver, Oliver, take up thy crown, For now thou has made three kingdom time own. Call thee a conclave, or thy own creation, To ride us to ruin. Who dare thee oppose While we, thy good thy good people and as thy discretion To fall down and worship thy terrible nose.

And again,

First, red nosed Noll, he swallowed all, His colour showed he loved it, &c. &c.

Of the domestic establishment of Cromwell, after attaining the Protectorate, we find some curious particulars, in a pamphlets entitled the “Court and Kitchen of Elizabeth, commonly called Joan Cromwell, wife of the late usurper." Though got up with a very different object, it discovers to us, what we know from other sources to be true, that both Cromwell and his wife, even in the zenith of their splendour, continued to live in the plainest and most unassuming manner.

Temperance, moderation, and the strictest economy, pervaded every department of the Protector's establishment. His wife devoted much of her time to walking,-making long excursions on foot into the country, with no other society than that of her daughters. On these occasions they carried with them some slight provision, and were enabled to spend whole days in this simple and inoffensive recreation. She entertained no public retinue; and, when she went abroad to visit and the city, was attended only by one of the household boys, whom she selected indifferently, regardless whether