"Then the babe was crossed and blessed amain,
But instead of Kate, or Ann, or Jane,
Which the humbler female endorses—
Instead of one name, as some people prefix,
Kilmansegg went at the tails of six,
Like a carriage of state with its horses."
The names, therefore, are left to the imagination of the reader, who may learn, if he will, some particulars of the nameless Kilmansegg's childhood:
"Turn we to little Miss Kilmansegg,
Cutting her first little toothy-peg
With a fifty-guinea coral—
A peg upon which
About poor and rich
Reflection might hang on a moral.
"Born in wealth, and wealthily nursed,
Capp'd, papp'd, napp'd, and lapp'd from the first
On the knees of Prodigality,
Her childhood was one eternal round
Of the game of going on Tiddler's ground,
Picking up gold in reality.
* * * * *
"Gold! and gold! 'twas the burden still!
To gain the heiress's early goodwill
There was much corruption and bribery.
The yearly cost of her golden toys
Would have given half London's charity boys
And charity girls the annual joys
Of a holiday dinner at Highbury."
The kind of education permitted to this unfortunate heiress may be gathered from the following extracts:
"Long before her A B and C
They had taught her by heart her £ s. d.,
And as how she was born a great heiress;
And as sure as London was made of bricks
My Lord would ask her the day to fix
To ride in a fine gilt coach and six,
Like her Worship the Lady Mayoress.
"The very metal of merit they told,
And praised her for being as 'good as gold'!
Till she grew as a peacock haughty;
Of money they talked the whole day round,
And weighed desert like grapes, by the pound,
Till she had an idea from the very sound
That people with naught were naughty.
"Gold! still gold....
Gold ran in her thoughts and filled her brain,
She was golden-headed, like Peter's cane,
With which he walked behind her."