Page:A poetic survey round Birmingham - James Bisset - 1800.pdf/30

Of Inns and Public Houses there are plenty,
To gueſs at which you'll double ten times twenty:
When that is done, you then may take four score,
To make the number near, add twenty more.
'What!' cry'd Apollo, Five and twenty score,'
When Vulcan thus reply'd, Aye, many more.'

Now Hermes seem'd surpris'd, and Bacchus star'd,
And thought Olympus could not be compared,
Nor Hybla sweet, or Nectar so divine,
To what he found below, Good Ale^[1] and Wine:
The Gods quaffd flowing bumpers, with true zest,
To Vucan toasted-Then retir'd to rest.

Next day They rambl'd round the Town, and swore,
'That such a place they never saw before:'
They visited our Wharfs,^[2] and, wond'ring, found
Some thousand tons of Coal pil'd on the ground,
And scores of boats, in length full sixty feet,
With loads of mineral fuel, quite replete ;
Whilst carts, and country waggons, filled each space,
And loaded teams stood rang'd around the place.
The Gods beheld the whole with great surprise,
And ask'd, from whence we gain d such large supplies ?'
For, tho' well vers'd in all Empyreal scenes,
They here were pos'd, to find our 'Ways and Means.'—

 

1. Birmingham is famed for fine ale.
2. For Navigation Office and Coal Wharf, see letter y. in the Plan of Birmingham. It is a very neat building, and weighing machines are under each gateway.