ce of brave fellows,
And Champion of England, by Providence sent
To slay a fierce Dragon as histories tell us!

And hail to the King of the first Isle on Earth,
His fame with St. George and the Dragon who blending,
Has chosen to celebrate this as his birth,
The day of all others, good fortune portending.

Away then with Care, let us haste to the Park,
Where Buckingham-house will exhibit a levy
Resplendent in rank, youth and beauty;--and hark!
Hoarse cannon announce both the birth-day and Levee.

Reverberate then, in each sea-port the roar!
And wave England's Standard on high, from each steeple,
And skip from the oiling, each ship, to the shore,
And joyfully dance on dry land with the people!{1}

1 That we may not be accused of plagiarism, we acknowledge
ourselves indebted for the hyperbole contained in the last
two lines of these introductory stanzas, to an original
recommendation for a proper display of rapture, as
contained in the following couplet by one Peter Ker, wherein
he very humanely invites all the vessels belonging to Great
Britain to strand themselves out of joy for the accession of
James I.

"Let subjects sing, bells ring, and cannons roar,
And every ship come dancing to the shore."

The morning of St. George's Day was ushered in, as the
appointed anniversary of his Majesty's birth, by all the
church-bells of the metropolis, the waving of the royal
standard from the steeples, the display of the colours of
all nations by the vessels in the Thames, and Cumberland
mentions in his Memoirs, that when his father the Bishop
revisited his estate in Ireland, an affectionate rustic hit
upon an ingenious mode of shewing his happiness, by leaping
from a tree, and breaking his leg! We do not find that any
of his Majesty's loving subjects in the Park on St. George's
Day followed the example of the Irish rustic!

[Illustration: page233.jpg St. George's Day]

Other manifestations of affection by a grateful people to the best of
Sovereigns!--

"The sky was overcast, the morning lower'd,
And heavily in clouds brought on the day."

~~264~~~ But despite of wind or wet, female curiosity must be gratified.
Miss Judith Macgilligan had some time