With true Delight obferv'd 'em All
Raking up Mud to build a Wall:
The Plan he much admir'd, and took
The Model in his Table-Book;
Thought himself now exactly fkill'd,
And fo refolv'd a House to build;
A real Houfe, and Rooms and Stairs,
Five times at leaft as big as theirs;
Taller than Mifs's by two Yards,
Not a fham Thing of Clay or Cards;
And fo he did: For in a while,
He built up fuch a monftrous Pile,
That no two Chair-men could be found,
Able to lift it from the Ground:
Sill at Whitehall it ftands in view,
Juft in the Place where firft it grew;
There all the little School-Boys run,
Envying to fee themfelves out-done.
V
FROM fuch deep Rudiments as thefe, is become by due Degrees, For Building fam'd, and justly reckon'd
At Court, Vitruvius the Second:
No wonder, fince wife Authors fhow,
That Beft Foundations must be Low;
And now the Duke has widely ta'en him
To be his Architect at Blenheim':
But Raillery for once aprt,
If this Rule holds in ev'ry Art;
Or if his Grace were no more skill'd in
The Art of Battering Walls, than Building,
We might expect to fee next Year,
A Moufe-trap-Man, Chief Engineer.
Grubftreet ELEGY
On the fuppofed Death of
PARTRIDGE
THE
Almanack-maker.
ELL, 'tis as Bickerstaff has gueft,
Tho' we all took it for a Jeft:
Partridge is Dead, nay more, he died
E,er he could prove the good Squire
W
ly'd.
Strange, an Aftrologer fhould die,
Without one Wonder in the Sky;
Not one of all his Crony Stars,
To pay their Duty at his Hearfe!
No Meteor, no Eclipfe appear'd!
No Comet with a Flaming Beard!
P 4
The Sun has rofe, and gon to Bed,
Juft as if Partridge were not Dead;
Nor hid himself behind the Moon,
To make a dreadful Night at Noon:
He at fit Periods walks through Aries,
Howe'er our Earthly Motion varies,
And twice a Year he'll cut the Equator,
As if there had been no fuch Matter.
SOME Wits have wondred what Analogy
There is 'twixt Cobling and Aftrology;
How Partridge made his Opticks rife,
From a Shooe Sole to reach the Skies.
A Lift the Coblers Temples ties, To keep the Hair out of their Eyes; From whence 'tis plain the Diadem That Princes wear derives from them; And therefore Crowns are now-a-days Adorn'd with Golden Stars and Rays, Which plainly fhews the near Alliance "Twixt Cobling and the Planets Srience,
BESIDES, that flow-pac'd Sign Bo-otes As 'tis mifcall'd, we know not who 'tis ; But Partridge ended all Difputes, He knew his Trade, and call'd it † Boots. THE Horned Moon which heretofore Upon their Shooes the Romans wore, Whofe wideness kept their Toes from Corns, And whence we claim our Shooing Horns, Shews how the Art of Cobling bears. A near Refemblance to the Spheres.
A Scrap of Parchment hung by Geometry, A great Refinement in Barometry;
* Partridge was a Cobler. † See his Almanack.
Can
12
11
Can like the Stars foretel the Weather;
And what is Parchment elfe but Leather?
Which an Aftrologer might ufe,
Either for Almanacks or Shooes.
:
THUS Partridge, by his Wit and Parts,
At once did Practice both thefe Arts:
And as the Boading Owl, (or rather
The Bat because her Wings are Leather)
Steals from her Private Cell by Night,
And flies about the Candle Light;
So Learned Partridge could as well
Creep in the Dark from Leathern Cell.
And in his Fancy fly as far,
To peep upon a twinkling Star.
C
BESIDES, he could confound the Spheres,
And fet the Planets by the Ears:
To fhew his Skill, he Mars would joyn
To Venus in Afpet Mali'n,
Then call in Mercury for Aid
And cure the Wounds that Venus made,
GREAT Scholars have in Lucian read,
When Philip King of Greece was dead,
His Soul and Spirit did divide,
And each Part took a diff'rent fide
One rofe a Star, the other fell
Beneath, and mended Shooes in Hell.
THUS Partridge ftill fhines in each Art,
The Cobling and Star-Gazing Part,
And is Inftall'd as good a Star,
As any of the Cafars are.
TRÍUMPHANŤ Star! fome Pity fhew,
On Coblers Militant below,
Whom roguish Boys in ftormy Nights
Torment, by piffing out their Lights;
Or thro' a Chink convey their Smoke,
Inclos'd Artificers to Choke.
THOU, high-exalted in thy Sphere,
May'ft follow ftill thy Calling there.
To thee the Bull will lend his Hide,
By Phoebus newly Tann'd and Dry'd.
For thee the Argos Hulk will Tax,
And fcrape her Pitchy Sides for Wax.
Then Ariadne kindly lends
Her braided Hair to make thee Ends;
The Point of Sagittarius Dart
Turns to an Awl, by Heavenly Art;
And Vulcan wheedled by his Wife,
Will forge for thee a Paring Knife.
For want of Room by Virgo's Side,
Shee'll train a Point and fit * aftride
To take thee kindly in between,
And then the Signs will be Thirteen.
* Tibi brachia contrabet Ingens Scorpius, &c.
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