Every
situation has its decent appropriations, and one would
suppose comfort would have taught these Nimrods a better
lesson. It is pardonable for children to wear their
Valentines on the 14th of February, or for a young ensign to
strut about armed _cap a pie_ for the first week of his
appointment; but the fashion of showing off in a red jerkin,
soiled smalls, mudded boots, and blooded spurs, is not
imitable: there is nothing of the old manhood of sport in
it; foppery and fox-hunting are not synonymous. Members of
the B. H. look to it; follow no leader in this respect. Or,
if you must needs persevere, turn your next fox out in the
ball-room, and let the huntsman's horn and the view halloo
supersede the necessity of harps and fiddle-strings.
~242~~
We'll learn and con them each by heart, Set them in note books by our
art, Each lord, and duke, and tailor. From Dr. S------{9} to Peter
K------, U------, O------, and I------, and E-----, and A------, Down to
the ploughman Naylor.{10}
Then let them sow their crop of cares, Their flowers, their weeds, their
fruit, their tares, Not looking ere they leap. We, like the folks
in Jamie's book{11} Will i' the dark sharp up our hook, And, my own
Barnard, reap.
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