174
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. m. MABCH s, 1917.
"* The New Foundling Hospital for Wit,' London,
1768-71, and in ' The Humours of the Times,' 1771.
Most of these reappeared in ' Lord Chesterfield's
"Witticisms,' 1773, and in ' Wit a-la-mode ; or, Lord
Chesterfield's Witticisms,' London, 1778."
'The lines to Fanny, quoted by MB. GILBABT, are said, in the ' D.N.B.,' to have been addressed to Chesterfield's mistress, Lady Fanny or Frances Shirley, whom he took into his keeping at the time of his marriage "with the middle-aged daughter of the Duchess of Kendal.
The index of the 1784 edition of ' The New Foundling Hospital ' refers to four pieces by 'Chesterfield :
ii. 200, ' Answer, by Lord Chesterfield ' - (to ' The Petition of the Fools to Jupiter,' fby David Garrick), 56 lines, beginning :
Garrick, I've read your Fool's [sic] Petition.
ii. 285, ' To the King's most excellent Majesty, the Humble Petition,' &c., in prose, 3 pp.
v. 58, ' An Epigram on Miss Eleanor Ambrose, a celebrated Beauty in Dublin,' 4 lines, beginning :
In Flavia's eyes is every grace, vi. 224, ' A Ballad, by the Earls of Chester- field and Bath,' 64 lines, beginning : The Muses quite jaded with rhyming. 'This is the poem on Molly Lepell, (Lady Hervey).
To the information given in the ' D.N.B.,' it should be added that some of Chesterfield's verses appeared anonymously in Dodsley's "' Collection of Poems,' several years before the author's death. In vol. i. (pp. 328-32, ed. 1758) are four pieces :
1. ' Advice to a Lady in Autumn,' mentioned above.
2. ' On a Lady's drinking the Bath- Waters,' 17 lines, beginning :
The gushing streams impetuous flow. <{See 10 S. iv. 108, 158.)
3. ' Verses written upon a Lady's Sherlock upon Death,' 16 lines, beginning :
Mistaken fair, lay Sherlock by.
4. ' Song ' (the lines to Fanny already mentioned).
The first three volumes of Dodsley's ^collection were published in 1748, vol. "iv. in 1755, and vols. v. and vi. in 1758. I have used the 1758 issue of the complete work, .-and have taken further information as to the authorship from the late MB. W. P. OOTJBTNEY'S very interesting notes on ' Dods- rley's Famous Collection of Poetry,' 10 S.
vi.-xii. * Chesterfield's performances are de-
scribed at vii. 5. They are close to the
end of Dodsley's first volume, the only piece
after them being a song of 20 lines :
Whenever, Chloe, I begin
Your heart, like mine, to move. MB. COURTNEY has no remark on the authorship of this not very edifying per- formance. Is it Chesterfield's ?
The following distich is said to have been written by Chesterfield when his friend long Sir Thomas Robinson asked him for an epigram :
CTwlike my subject I will make my song, It shall be witty and it shan't be long.
See Coker's note on Boswell's ' Life of Johnson.' July 19, 1763.
EDWABD BENSLY. University College, Aberystwyth.
In the recently published ' Political Ballads illustrating the Administration of Sir Robert Walpole ' (Clarendon Press, 1916) one at least of the ballads, viz., ' The Cambro Briton robbed of his Bauble,' was undoubtedly written by Lord Chesterfield, while the editor is of opinion that one or two more may probably be attributed to him. T. F. D.
Since sending in my query, and in conse- quence of its insertion, I have obtained a little-known and (I believe) somewhat rare volume, entitled :
" Water Poetry. A Collection of Verses written at Several Public Places, Most of them never before printed. Viz. Bath, Tunbridge, Margate, Brighthelmston, Bristol, Scarborough, Southampton, Cheltenham, &c. The Water- Poets are an innocent tribe, and deserve all the encouragement I can give them. It would be barbarous to treat those authors with bitterness, who never icrite out of season, and whose works are useful with the waters. Guardian, Vol. II. No. 174. London : Printed for G. Pearch, No. 12, Cheapside " (n.d.).
In this volume I have found two poems confessed to be the work of Lord Chester- field ; it is quite possible that it includes others by the same hand, since many of the verses are anonymous. There are, also, poems by Sir C. H. Williams, Mrs. Bindon, Kynge Bladyde, Garrick, John Earl of Orrery, Dr. Broom, Lady M. W. Montagu, Lockman, and John Cunningham.
One of the poems by Lord Chesterfield is a longer (but inferior) version of the epigram on Beau Nash's portrait, which I quoted in my previous communication according to
- A few copies were printed as a book for private
circulation. See 11 S. iii. 239.
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