OR,
A DESCRIPTION OF A CAMP
IN THE YEAR 1800.
TENTS, marquees , and baggage-waggons;
Suttling houses; beer in flaggons;
Drams and trumpets; singing, firing;
Girls seducing; beaux admiring;
Country lasses, gay and smiling;
City-lads their hearts beguiling;
Dusty roads, and horses frisky;
Many an Eton boy, in whisky;
Tax’d-carts, fall of farmers’ daughters;
Brutes to kill, and man, who slaughters;
Public-houses, booths, and castles;
Belles of fashion, serving vassals;
Dowagers of sixty, simpering;
Misses for “their soldiers ” wimp’ring;
Princesses with heav’nly faces;
Beauteous children of the Graces;
Britain’s pride, and Virtue’s treasure;
Fair and gracious beyond measure;
Aid-de-camps ; and royal pages;
Prudes and vestals of all ages;
Old coquettes, and matrons surly;
Sounds of distant hurly burly;
Mingled sounds of uncouth singing;
Carts, all sorts of forage bringing;
Sociables, and horses weary;
Houses warm and dresses airy;
Loads of fatten’d poultry; pleasure
Serv’d (for money) without measure;
Tradesmen leaving shops, and seeming
More of war than bus’ness dreaming.
Martial sounds, and braying asses;
Noise that ev’ry noise surpasses;
All confusion, din, and riot;
Nothing clean, and nothing quiet.
(Mary Elizabeth Robinson)
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