Page:Poetical Works of John Oldham.djvu/209

Rh Nay, while 'tis burning, some will send him in Timber, and stone to build his house again; Others choice furniture; some rare piece Of Rubens, or Vandyke presented is; There a rich suit of Mortlack tapestry, A bed of damask or embroidery; One gives a fine scrutoire, or cabinet, Another a huge massy dish of plate, Or bag of gold: thus he at length gets more By kind misfortune than he had before; And all suspect it for a laid design, As if he did himself the fire begin. Could you but be advised to leave the town, And from dear plays, and drinking friends be drawn, A handsome dwelling might be had in Kent, Surrey, or Essex, at a cheaper rent Than what you're forced to give for one half year To lie, like lumber, in a garret here. A garden there, and well, that needs no rope, Engine, or pains to crane its waters up; Water is there through Nature's pipes conveyed, For which no custom or excise is paid. Had I the smallest spot of ground, which scarce Would summer half a dozen grasshoppers, Not larger than my grave, though hence remote Far as St. Michael's Mount, I would go to't, Dwell there content, and thank the Fates to boot. ’Here want of rest a-nights more people kills Than all the college, and the weekly bills; Where none have privilege to sleep, but those Whose purses can compound for their repose. In vain I go to bed, or close my eyes, Methinks the place the middle region is, Where I lie down in storms, in thunder rise; The restless bells such din in steeples keep, That scarce the dead can in their churchyards sleep; Huzzas of drunkards, bellmen's midnight rhymes, The noise of shops, with hawker's early screams,