(The fair Augusta much to fears inclin'd)

An ancient fabric, rais'd t' inform the sight

There stood of yore, and Barbican it hight:

A watch-tower once; but now so fate ordains,

Of all the pile an empty name remains:

From its old ruins brothel-houses rise,

Scenes of lewd loves, and of polluted joys,

Where their vast courts the mother-strumpets keep,

And, undisturb'd by watch, in silence sleep.

Near these a nursery erects its head