With spiral tops and copple [27] crowns;
Or gilding in a sunny morn
The humble branches of a thorn. 
So poets sing, with golden bough
The Trojan hero paid his vow.[28]
  Hither, by luckless error led,
The crude consistence oft I tread;
Here when my shoes are out of case,
Unweeting gild the tarnish’d lace;
Here, by the sacred bramble tinged,
My petticoat is doubly fringed. 
  Be witness for me, nymph divine,
I never robb’d thee with design;
Nor will the zealous Hannah pout
To wash thy injured offering out. 
But stop, ambitious Muse, in time,
Nor dwell on subjects too sublime. 
In vain on lofty heels I tread,
Aspiring to exalt my head;
With hoop expanded wide and light,
In vain I ’tempt too high a flight. 
  Me Phoebus [29] in a midnight dream [30]
Accosting, said, “Go shake your cream [31]
Be humbly-minded, know your post;
Sweeten your tea, and watch your toast. 
Thee best befits a lowly style;
Teach Dennis how to stir the guile;[32]
With Peggy Dixon[33] thoughtful sit,
Contriving for the pot and spit. 
Take down thy proudly swelling sails,
And rub thy teeth and pare thy nails;
At nicely carving show thy wit;
But ne’er presume to eat a bit: 
Turn every way thy watchful eye,
And every guest be sure to ply: 
Let never at your board be known
An empty plate, except your own. 
Be these thy arts;[34] nor higher aim
Than what befits a rural dame. 
  “But Cloacina, goddess bright,
Sleek——­claims her as his right;
And Smedley,[35] flower of all divines,
Shall sing the Dean in Smedley’s lines.”

[Footnote 1:  The Lady of Sir Arthur Acheson.]

[Footnote 2:  A village near Sir Arthur Acheson’s house where the author passed two summers.—­Dublin Edition.]

[Footnote 3:  The names of two overseers.]

[Footnote 4:  My lady’s footman.]

[Footnote 4:  Dr. Daniel, Dean of Down, who wrote several poems.]

[Footnote 5:  The author preached but once while he was there.]

[Footnote 6:  He sometimes used to direct the butler.]

[Footnote 7:  The butler.]

[Footnote 8:  He sometimes used to walk with the lady.  See ante, p. 96.]

[Footnote 9:  The neighbouring ladies were no great understanders of raillery.]

[Footnote 10:  The clown that cut down the old thorn at Market-Hill.]

[Footnote 11:  See ante, “My Lady’s Lamentation,” p. 97.—­W.  E. B.]

[Footnote 12:  Lady Acheson was daughter of Philip Savage, M. P. for Wexford, and Chancellor of the Exchequer in Ireland.—­W.  E. B.]

[Footnote 13:  Understood here as dainty, particular.—­W.  E. B.]

[Footnote 14:  A way of making butter for breakfast, by filling a bottle with cream, and shaking it till the butter comes.]

[Footnote 15:  It is a common saying, when the milk burns, that the devil or the bishop has set his foot in it.]