In reply to one of the Queries of “W.” (No. 24. p. 383.), I transcribe from the MSS. of Mr. Chewning Blackmore, a Presbyterian minister of Worcester, the “Lines on London Dissenting Ministers of a former Day,” which I have never seen entire in print:—­

  “Behold how Papal Wright with lordly pride
   Directs his haughty eye to either side,
   Gives forth his doctrine with imperious nod,
   And fraught with pride addresses e’en his God.

  “Not so the gentle Watts, in him we find
   The fairest pattern of a humble mind;
   In him the meekest, lowliest virtue dwells,
   As mild as light, as soft as ev’ning gales.

  “Tuning melodious nonsense, Bradbury stands,
   With head uplifted and with dancing hands,
   Prone to sedition, and to slander free,
   Sacheverell sure was but a type of thee.

  “Mark how the pious matrons flock around,
   Pleased with the noise of Guyse’s empty sound;
   How sweetly each unmeaning period flows
   To lull the audience to a gentle doze!

  “Eternal Bragge in never-ending strains
   Unfolds the mysteries Joseph’s coat contains,
   Of every hue describes a different cause,
   And from each patch a solemn mystery draws.

  “With soundest judgment and with nicest skill,
   The learned Hunt explains his Master’s will,
   So just his meaning, and his sense to true,
   He only pleases the discerning few.

  “In Chandler’s solid, well-composed discourse,
   What wond’rous energy! what mighty force! 
   Still, friend to Truth, and strict to Reason’s rules,
   He scorns the censure of unthinking fools.

  “But see the accomplish’d orator appear,
   Refined his language, and his reasoning dear,
   Thou only, Foster, has the pleasing art,
   At once to please the ear and mend the heart!

  “Lawrence, with clear and solid judgment speaks,
   And on the sober mind impression makes,
   The sacred truths with justness he explains,
   And he from ev’ry hearer praise obtains.”

Of the author of these lines I can give no information.  He evidently belonged to the Anti-Calvinistic party.  His name does not appear to have been known to Mr. Walter Wilson, the historian of the “Dissenting Churches” of London, although he quotes a portion of them.  But they were probably composed between 1728 and 1738.  In the former year, Dr. James Foster’s London popularity arose, on the occasion of his undertaking the evening lecture at the Old Jewry.  In the year 1738, Mr. Robert Bragge, one of the subjects of the poem, died.  Of this gentleman the story is told (and to it the poem evidently alludes), that he was employed no less than four months in developing the mysteries of Joseph’s coat, from Genesis, xxxvii. 3.:  “And he made him a coat of many colours.”  In reply to the sarcasm on Mr. Bragge, Mr. Walter Wilson states (Hist. and Ant. of Diss. ch. i. p. 247.) that the following stanza was composed:—­