"Yet are we gay in ev'ry way,
Not minding where the joke lie;
On Saturday at bowls we play
At Camberwell with Coakley."
"Methinks you laugh to hear but half
The name of Dr. Lettsom:
From him of good—talk, liquors, food—
His guests will always get some."
"And guests has he, in ev'ry degree,
Of decent estimation:
His liberal mind holds all mankind
As an extended Nation.
"O'er Lettsom's cheer we've met a peer—
A peer—no less than Lansdowne!
Of whom each dull and envious skull
Absurdly cries—'The man's down!'
"Down do they say? How then, I pray,
His king and country prize him!
Through the whole world known, his peace alone
Is sure t' immortalize him.
"Lettsom we view a Quaker true,
'Tis clear he's so in one sense:
His spirit, strong, and ever young,
Refutes pert Priestley's nonsense.
"In fossils he is deep, we see;
Nor knows Beasts, Fishes, Birds ill;
With plants not few, some from Pelew,
And wondrous Mangel Wurzel!
"West India bred, warm heart, cool head,
The city's first physician;
By schemes humane—want, sickness, pain,
To aid in his ambition.
"From terrace high he feasts his eye,
When practice grants a furlough;
And, while it roves o'er Dulwich groves,
Looks down—even upon Thurlow."
The concluding line is an allusion to the Lord Chancellor's residence at Dulwich.