Who deem his house a useless place, Who trample order; and the day, If scorn of God's commands, impress'd Such want it, and that want uncur'd Sad period to a pleasant course! And mercy cast away. INSCRIPTION, FOR THE TOMB OF MK. HAMILTON. PAUSE here, and think: monitory rhyme Demands one moment of thy fleeting time. Consult life's silent clock, thy bounding vein; And many a tomb, like Hamilton's, aloud EPITAPH ON A HARE. HERE lies, whom hound did ne'er pursue, Old Tiney, surliest of his kind, And to domestick bounds confin'd, Though duly from my hand he took He did it with a jealous look, And, when he could, would bite, His diet was of wheaten bread, With sand to scour his maw. On twigs of hawthorn he regal'd, And, when his juicy salads fail'd, A turkey carpet was his lawn His frisking was at ev'ning hours, Eight years and five round rolling moons He thus saw steal away, Dozing out all his idle noons, And ev'ry night at play. I kept him for his humour's sake, My heart of thoughts, that made it ache, But now beneath this walnut shade He finds his long last home, And waits, in snug concealment laid, He, still more aged, feels the shocks, EPITAPHIUM ALTERUM. Hic etiam jacet, Qui totum novennium vixit, Puss. Siste paulisper, Qui præteriturus es, Et tecum sic reputa- Nec imbres nimii, Confecere: Tamen mortuus est Et moriar ego. THE FOLLOWING ACCOUNT OF THE TREATMENT OF HIS HARES WAS INSERTED BY MR. COWPER IN THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, WHENCE IT IS TRANSCRIBED. IN the year 1774, being much indisposed both in mind and body, incapable of diverting myself either with company or books, and yet in a condition that made some diversion necessary, I was glad of any thing that would engage my attention without fatiguing it The children of a neighbor of mine had a leveret given them for a plaything; it was at that time about three months old. Understanding better how to tease the poor creature than to feed it, and soon becoming weary of their charge, they readily consented that their father, who saw it ping and grow ing leaner every day, should offer it to my acceptance. I was willing enough to take the prisoner under my protection, perceiving that, in the management of such an animal, and in the attempt to tame it, I should find just that sort of employment which my case required. It was soon known among the neighbours that I was pleased with the present; and the consequence was, that in a short time I had as many leverets offered to me as would have stocked a paddock. I undertook the care of three, which it is necessary that I should here distinguish by the names I gave them--Puss, Tiney, and Bess. Notwithstanding the two feminine appella. tives, I must inform you that they were all males. Im. mediately commencing carpenter, I built them houses to sleep in ; each had a separate apartment, so contriv. ed, that their ordure would pass through the bottom of it; an earthen pan placed under each received what soever fell, which being duly emptied and washed, they were thus kept perfectly sweet and clean. In the daytime they had the range of a hall, and at night re |