"Ah ! what a season was my youth ! 

 How brisk my tail ! how sharp my tooth ! 

 How clear my bark, which now, forsooth ! 



Too often turns to snarling ! 

 Then I was valued, as you know, 

 A thousand pounds at every show, 

 The cynosure of Rotten Row, 



The boudoir's petted darling. 



" Now Age is on me like a blight ; 

 Harsh coughs convulse my sides at night ; 

 A hazy film o'erspreads my sight ; 



; Tis strange how dull my nose is ; 

 My every tooth is almost gone ; 

 I can but trifle with a bone ; 

 Of all my pleasures barely one 



Is left me but my dozes. 



"The time, too, 's out of joint like me ; 



breeding is gone, and pedigree ; 



And through the whole dog world I see 



The free replace the feudal ! 

 King Charles must be content to live 

 Shorn of his old prerogative, 

 And Blenheim's noble lineage give 



Room to the shop-born poodle. 



" Lowe has repealed the dog-tax ; Peace 

 Allows the mongrel to increase ; 



199 



