I pass their desp'rate deeds, and mischiefs done,
Where from Snow-hill black steepy torrents run: 330
How matrons, hoop'd within the hogshead's womb,
Were tumbled furious thence, the rolling tomb
O'er the stones thunders, bounds from side to side :
So Regulus to save his country died.
Where a dim gleam the paly lanthorn throws
O'er the mid pavement, heapy rubbish grows;
Or arched vaults their gaping jaws extend,
Or the dark caves to common-shores descend.
Oft by the winds extinct the signal lies,
Or smother'd in the glimmering socket dies,
Ere night has half roll'd round her ebon throne;
In the wide gulph the shatter'd coach o'erthrown
Sinks with the snorting steeds; the reins are broke,
And from the crackling 1 axle flies the spoke,
So when famed Eddystone's far-shooting ray,
That led the sailor through the stormy way,
Was from its rocky roots by billows torn,
And the high turret in the whirlwind borne,
Fleets bulged their sides against the craggy land,
And pitchy ruins blacken'd all the strand.
Who then through night would hire the harness'd steed,
And who would choose the rattling wheel for speed?
necessary Caution in a dark Night.
But hark! distress with screaming voice draws A Fire. nigh'r,
And wakes the slumb'ring street with cries of fire.
At first a glowing red enwraps the skies,
And born by winds the scatt'ring sparks arise;
From beam to beam the fierce contagion spreads:
The spiry flames now lift aloft their heads,
Through the burst sash a blazing deluge pours,
And splitting tiles descend in rattling showers.
Now with thick crowds th' enlighten'd pavement
The fireman sweats beneath his crooked arms,
A leathern casque his vent'rous head defends,
Boldly he climbs where thickest smoke ascends,
Moved by the mother's streaming eyes and prayers,
The helpless infant through the flame he bears,
With no less virtue, than through hostile fire
The Dardan hero bore his aged sire.
See forceful engines spout their levell'd streams,
To quench the blaze that runs along the beams;
The grappling hook plucks rafters from the walls, 370
And heaps on heaps the smoky ruin falls.
Blown by strong winds the fiery tempest roars,
Bears down new walls, and pours along the floors;
The Heav'ns are all a-blaze, the face of night
Is cover'd with a sanguine dreadful light :
'Twas such a light involved thy towers, O Rome,
The dire presage of mighty Cæsar's doom,
When the sun veil'd in rust his mourning head,
And frightful prodigies the skies o'erspread.
Hark! the drum thunders! far, ye crowds, retire: 380
Behold! the ready match is tipt with fire,
The nitrous store is laid, the smutty train
With running blaze awakes the barrell'd grain;
Flames sudden wrap the walls; with sullen sound
The shatter'd pile sinks on the smoky ground.
So when the years shall have revolved the date,
Th' inevitable hour of Naples' fate,
Her sapp'd foundations shall with thunders shake,
And heave and toss upon the sulph'rous lake ;
Earth's womb at once the fiery flood shall rend,
And in th' abyss her plunging towers descend.
Consider, reader, what fatigues I've known, The toils, the perils of the wintry town; What riots seen, what bustling crowds I bored, How oft I cross'd where carts and coaches roar'd; Yet shall I bless my labours, if mankind Their future safety from my dangers find. Thus the bold traveller, (inur'd to toil, Whose steps have printed Asia's desert soil, The barb'rous Arabs haunt; or shiv'ring crost Dark Greenland's mountains of eternal frost; Whom Providence in length of years restores To the wish'd harbour of his native shores ;) Sets forth his journals to the public view, To caution, by his woes, the wand'ring crew.
And now complete my genʼrous labours lie, Finish'd, and ripe for immortality.
Death shall entomb in dust this mould'ring frame, But never reach th' eternal part, my fame.
When W- and G, mighty names, are dead; Or but at Chelsea under custards read;
When critics crazy bandboxes repair,
And tragedies, turn'd rockets, bounce in air;
High-raised on Fleet Street posts, consign'd to
This work shall shine, and walkers bless my name.
[The entries marked with an asterisk appear for the first time in the quarto edition. ]
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