202 APPENDIX. 



Dorset, in consequence of some incorrect accounts of the run whiwb 

 had been published. 



POEM 



OS THE FAMOUS BILLESDE.V COPLOW RU.V 



By the Rev. Robert Lowth. 



Quaeqiie ipse miserrima vidi, 

 Et quorum pars magna fui. 



With the wind at north-east, forbiddingly keen, 



The Coplow of Billesden ne'er witness'd, I ween, 



Two hundred such horses and men at a burst, 



All determined to ride — each resolved to be first. 



But to get a good start ovei'-eager and jealous, 



Two-thirds, at the least, of these very fine fellows 



So crowded, and hustled, and jostled, and cross'd, 



That they rode the wrong way, and at starting were lost. 



In spite of th' unpromising state of the weather. 



Away broke the fox, and the hounds close together . 



A burst up to Tilton so brilliantly ran, 



Was scarce ever seen in the mem'ry of man. 



What hounds guided scent, or which led the way, 



Your bard — to their names quite a stranger — can't say ; 



Though their names had he known, he's free to confess, 



His horse could not show him at such a death-pace. 



Villiers, Cholmondeley, and Forester made such sharp play, 



Not omitting Germaine, never seen till to-day : 



Had you judged of these four by the trim of their pace, 



At Bibury you'd thought they'd been riding a race. 



But these hounds with a scent, how they dash and they fling, 



To o'er-ride them is quite the impossible thing ; 



Disdaining to hang in the wood, through he raced. 



And the open for Skeffington gallantly faced ; 



Where headed and foil'd, his first point he forsook. 



And merrily led them a dance o'er the brook. 



Pass'd Galby and Norton, Great Stretton and Small, 



Kight onward still sweeping to old Stretton Hall ; 



Where two minutes' check served to show at one ken 



The extent of the havoc 'mongst horses and men. 



Such sighing, such sobbing, such trotting, such walking ; 



Such reeling, such halting, of fences such baulking ; 



Such a smoke in the gaps, such comparing of notes ; 



Such quizzing each other's daub'd breeches and coats : 



Here a man walk'd afoot wlio his horse had half kill'd. 



There you met with a steed who his rider had spiU'd : 



