Since Peacocks and Butterflies mimick’d the ton,
And gave, in a manner becoming their station,
Their fêtes and their balls to their fellow-creation.
Then Roscoe and Dorset, high-talented elves,
Amused other people and solaced themselves,
In describing the revels, the gibes, and the jokes,
Of the creatures of earth, and the feathery folks;
Of their fashion and fancy, the ebbs and the flows,
And the beauty and wit of their belles and their beaux.
But the world has spun round like a peg top since then,