Page:Trivia (John Gay) to which is added London (Samuel Johnson) (1809).djvu/37

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 * Oh, bear me to the paths of fair Pall-Mall!—

Safe are thy pavements, grateful is thy smell! At distance rolls along the gilded coach, Nor sturdy carmen on thy walks encroach: No lets would bar thy ways, were chairs denied— The soft supports of laziness and pride! Shops breathe perfumes; thro' sashes ribands glow— The mutual arms of ladies and the beau. Yet still, ev'n here, when rains the passage hide, Oft the loose stone spirts up a muddy tide Beneath thy careless foot: and from on high, Where masons mount the ladder, fragments fly; Mortar and crumbled lime in show'rs descend: And o'er thy head destructive tiles impend.
 * But sometimes let me leave the noisy roads,

And silent wander in the close abodes, Where wheels ne'er shake the ground; there pensive stray, In studious thought, the long uncrowded way. Here I remark each walker's diff'rent face, And in their look their various bus'ness trace.— The broker here his spacious beaver wears; Upon his brow sit jealousies and cares: