Page:Trivia (John Gay) to which is added London (Samuel Johnson) (1809).djvu/37

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Oh, bear me to the paths of fair Pall-Mall!—
Safe are thy pavements, grateful is thy smell!
At distance rolls along the gilded coach,
Nor sturdy carmen on thy walks encroach:260
No lets would bar thy ways, were chairs denied—
The soft supports of laziness and pride!
Shops breathe perfumes; thro' sashes ribands glow—
The mutual arms of ladies and the beau.
Yet still, ev'n here, when rains the passage hide,
Oft the loose stone spirts up a muddy tide266
Beneath thy careless foot: and from on high,
Where masons mount the ladder, fragments fly;
Mortar and crumbled lime in show'rs descend:
And o'er thy head destructive tiles impend.270
But sometimes let me leave the noisy roads,
And silent wander in the close abodes,
Where wheels ne'er shake the ground; there pensive stray,
In studious thought, the long uncrowded way.
Here I remark each walker's diff'rent face,275
And in their look their various bus'ness trace.—
The broker here his spacious beaver wears;
Upon his brow sit jealousies and cares: