No more!—Where ignorance is bliss,
’Tis folly to be wise.
Anonymous. 1775.
The eminent, but eccentric architect, Sir John Soane, was satirised in Knight’s Quarterly Magazine (No. 4, 1824), in an article by a witty critic, who, speaking of Dulwich College, said, “It is a fine specimen of Soane’s own original and best style,” and thus addresses it, in a parody of Gray:—
“Ye vases five, ye antic towers,
That crown the turnpike glade,
Where art, in dingy light adores
Her Bourgeois’ ochrey shade;”
The poet then apostrophises the Superior of the College, who, by the will of its founder, Allen, must always bear the same name as himself:—