No freehold property—no copyhold property—no leasehold property. In fact, no property at all! I live by my wits, as one half of the world live, and am therefore NOT qualified.
Gaspard.
Suburban Sonnets.
I.
ISLINGTON.
Thy fields, fair Islington! begin to bear
Unwelcome buildings, and unseemly piles;
The streets are spreading, and the Lord knows where
Improvement’s hand will spare the neighb’ring stiles:
The rural blandishments of Maiden Lane
Are ev’ry day becoming less and less,
While kilns and lime roads force us to complain
Of nuisances time only can suppress.
A few more years, and Copenhagen House
Shall cease to charm the tailor and the snob;
And where attornies’ clerks in smoke carouse,
Regardless wholly of to-morrow’s job,
Some Claremont Row, or Prospect-Place shall rise,
Or terrace, p’rhaps, misnomer’d Paradise!
II.
HAGBUSH LANE.
Poor Hagbush Lane! thy ancient charms are going
To rack and ruin fast as they can go;
And where but lately many a flow’r was growing,
Nothing shall shortly be allow’d to grow!
Thy humble cottage, where as yet they sell
No “nut-brown ale,” or luscious Stilton cheese—
Where dusky gipsies in the summer dwell,
And donkey drivers fight their dogs at ease,
Shall feel ere long the lev’lling hand of taste,
If that be taste which darkens ev’ry field;
Thy garden too shall likewise be displac’d,
And no more “cabbage” to its master yield;
But, in its stead, some new Vauxhall perchance
Shall rise, renown’d for pantomime and dance!
III.
HIGHGATE.
Already, Highgate! to thy skirts they bear
Bricks, mortar, timber, in no small degree,
And thy once pure, exhilarating air
Is growing pregnant with impurity!
The would-be merchant has his “country box”
A few short measures from the dusty road,
Where friends on Sunday talk about the stocks
Or praise the beauties of his “neat abode:”
One deems the wall-flow’r garden, in the front,
Unrivall’d for each aromatic bed;
Another fancies that his old sow’s grunt
“Is so much like the country,” and instead
Of living longer down in Crooked-lane,
Resolves, at once, to “ruralize” again!