Too courteous, perhaps, or obligingly flat? Then what was his failing? come tell it, and burn ye Here Reynolds is laid, and to tell you my mind, His pencil our faces, his manners our heart: When they talk'd of their Raphaels, Corregios, and stuff, He shifted his trumpet, and only took snuff. * Sir Joshua Reynolds was so remarkably deaf, as to be under the necessity of using an ear-trumpet in company. POSTSCRIPT. After the fourth edition of this poem was printed the publisher received the following epitaph on *Mr. Whitefoord, from a friend of Goldsmith's. HERE Whitefoord reclines, and deny it who can, Who relish'd a joke, and rejoic'd in a pun; sincere; A stranger to flatt'ry, a stranger to fear; Who scatter'd around wit and humour at will; What pity, alas! that so lib'ral a mind Should so long be to newspaper essays confin'd? Ye newspaper witlings! ye pert scribbling folks! Who copied his sqibs, and re-echoed his jokes ; Mr. Caleb Whitefoord, author of many humorous essays. t Mr. W. was so notorious a punster, that Doctor Gold smith used to say it was impossible to keep him company, without being infected with the itch of punning. + Mr. H. S. Woodfall, printer of the Public Advertiser. Ye tame imitators, ye servile herd, come, * Cross-readings, ship-news, and mistakes of the press. Merry Whitefoord, farewell! for thy sake I admit That a Scot may have humour, 1 had almost said wit. This debt to thy memory I cannot refuse, "Thou best humour'd man with the worst humour'd muse. * Mr. Whitefoord has frequently indulged the town with humorous pieces under those titles in the Public Advertiser. 1 |