Maria Riddeli., ihk Friend oe BiiRxs. 19 



had time to talk and write nonsense to his young friend. 

 His " Elegiac Epistle to Miss M. Woodley " purports to 

 have been composed after a farewell meeting at the Royalty 

 Theatre ; he being about to start for the Western Circuit, and 

 Maria for the West Indies. He upbraids her for the hard- 

 ness of her heart : — 



" Yes, Miss Maria ; at the Royalty 

 Theatre, full of love and loyalty 

 To yoin- sway sovereign I bow'd piodigiouf<Iy 

 AVhile you looked beautifid, perfidious, sly; 

 And 'stead of tender valedictory, 

 Assuni'd a tone most contradictory 

 To my pure passion — cruelly to jerk it 

 Just as one got astride to ride a circuit. 



A proud disdain ! a melancliolj' topic ! 



For you'll be to'tlicr side the tropic 



And sucking sugar-cane i' the Leeward Islands 



Before 1 tramp it back fi'om Cornish Highlands. 



Yes, fair Maria, 'twas a hard condition, 



And more impolitic than th' abolition 



Of Slave Trade, thus with base Allegro 



To treat a Counsellor just like a negro." 



This ingenuous effusion ends with an assurance that its 

 author would be delighted to wed the fair Maria, were he 

 rich enough to afford the luxury. As it turned out, the 

 lively gentleman A\aited till the century was out, and then 

 married a lady with a fortune. ^^ But Miss Maria's reply, 

 though she was only fifteen, is at least as well worlh quota- 

 tion as the " Elegiac Epistle " which provoked it. She 

 begins : — 



" When -Jekyll mounted on the back 

 Of Pegasus, his circuit hack. 

 Does write such execrable dogged verse, 

 He shows his brains arc as empty as his purse. 

 But this worthy subject of an Eclogue 

 (Who, by the bye, deserves to be used like a dog !) 

 Thinks that because he's become Member of Parliament 

 He's a right to give his impertinence a free vent. 

 But 'stead of letting him on the circuit prank it 

 Oh how I would I had the tossing of him in a blanket !" 



11 See Footnote 9. 



