When taught on eagle wings to fly,
He trac'd the wonders of the sky;
The chambers of the sun explor'd,
Where tints of thousand hues were stor'd.

FRANCIS CHARTRES,

1

A man infamous for all manner of vices. When he was an ensign in the army, he was drummed out of the regiment for a cheat, he was next banished Brussels, and drummed out of Ghent on the same accouut. After a hundred tricks at the gaming tables, he took to lending of money at exorbitant interest, and on great penalties, accumulating premium, interest, and capital into a new capital, and seizing to a minute when the payments' became due; in a word, by a constant attention to the vices, wants, and follies of mankind, he acquired an immense fortune. His house was a perpetual bandy-house. He was twice condemned for rapes, and pardoned. but the last time not without imprisonment in Newgate, and large confiscations. He died in Scotland, in 1731, aged 62. The populace at his funeral raised a great riot, almost tore the body out of the coffin, and cast dead dogs, &c. into the grave along with it. The following epitaph contains his character very justly drawn by Dr. Arbuthnot.

Here continueth to rot
The body of

FRANCIS CHARTRES,

Who, with inflexible constancy,

And inimitable uniformity of life,

Persisted,

In spite of age and infirmities,

In the practice of every human vice; Excepting prodigality and hypocrisy : His insatiable avarice exempted him from the first, His matchless impudence from the second. Nor was he more singular In the undeviating pravity of his manners,

Than successful

In accumulating wealth;
For, without trade or profession,
Without trust of public money,
And without bribe-worthy service,
He acquired, or more properly created,
A ministerial estate.

He was the only person of his time,
Who could cheat without the mask of honesty.
He retained his primæval meanness

When possessed of ten thousand a year;

And having daily deserved the gibbet for what he did,
Was at last condemned to it for what he could not do.
Oh, indignant reader!

Think not his life useless to maukind!
Providence permitted his execrable designs,
To give to after-ages

A conspicuous proof and example,
Of how small estimation is exorbitant wealth
In the sight of God,

By his bestowing it upon the most unworthy of all mortals.

St. Mary Key, Ipswich, Suffolk.

ON JO. WARNER, AGED 92, 1641.

I Warner once was to myself,
Both living, dying, dead I was;
Now warning am to thee:
See then thou warned be.

Dalkieth, Edinburgshire.

To the memory of

MARGARET SCOTT,

Who died in this town, in the year 1738.

;

Stop, passenger, until my life you've read;
The living may get knowledge by the dead.
Five times five years I liv'd a virgin's life;
Ten times five years I was a virtuous wife;
Ten times five years I liv'd a widow chaste
Now, tired of this mortal life, I rest.
I, from my cradle to my grave, have seen
Eight mighty kings of Scotland, and a queen.
Four times five years the common wealth I saw:
Ten times the subjects rose against the law.
Twice did I see old prelacy pull'd down:

And twice the cloak was humbled by the gown.

An end of Stuart's race I saw : nay more!
I saw my country sold for English ore.
Such desolation in my time have been;
1 have an end of all perfection seen.

Biddiford, Devon.

ON MRS. GEARING, 1696.

Hark! from the tombs a doleful sound,
Your ears attend the cry,

Ye living men, come view the ground,
Where you must shortly lye.
Your wasting lives grow shorter still,
As month and days increase,
And every beating pulse you feel,

Leaves but the number less.

Good God! on what a slender thread

Hang everlasting things,
Th' eternal state of all the dead
Upon life's feeble strings.

ON PETER THE GREAT.

Here under deposited

Lies all that could die of a man immortal,
PETER ALEXOWITZ;

It is almost superfluous to say,

Great emperor of Russia:
A title,

Which, instead of adding to his glory,
Became glorious by his wearing it,
Let antiquity.be dumb,

Nor boast her Alexander,
Or her Cæsar.

How easy was victory

To leaders who were followed by heroes!
And whose soldiers felt a noble disdain

To be thought less awake, than their generals!

Who in this place knew rest,

Found subjects base and unactive,
Unwarlike, unlearned, untractable;
Neither covetous of fame,

Nor liberal of danger;

Creatures with the name of men,

But with qualities rather brutal than rational :

Yet even these

He polished from their native ruggedness;
And breaking out like a new sun,
To illuminate the minds of a people,
Dispelled their night of hereditary darkness!
Till by force of his invincible influence,
He had taught them to conquer
Even the conquerers of Germany.

Other princes have commanded victorious armies,
This commander created them.