TRIVIA.
BOOK II.
Of Walking the Streets by Day.
THus far the Muse has trac’d, in useful Lays,Lays: songs, lyrics.
The proper Implements for Wintry Ways;
Has taught the Walker, with judicious Eyes,
To read the various Warnings of the Skies.
Now venture, Muse, from Home to range the Town,
And for the publick Safety risque thy own.
C 3
For
The Morning.
For Ease and for Dispatch the Morning’s best:
No Tides of Passengers the Street molest.
You’ll see a draggleddraggled: soiled with dragging on the ground or through the mire.
Damsel, here and there,
From
Billingsgate her fishy Traffick bear;
On Doors the sallow Milk-maid chalks her Gains;
Ah! how unlike the Milk-maid of the Plains!the sallow Milk-maid… unlike the Milk-maid of the Plains: a contrast between the “sallow” health of life in the city versus the health and beauty
of agricultural life.Before proud Gates attending Asses bray,
Or arrogate with solemn Pace the Way;
These grave Physicians, with their milky Chear,
The Love-sick Maid and dwindling Beau repair;
Here Rows of Drummers stand in martial File,
And with their Vellom-ThunderVellom-Thunder: the sound made by a drum's parchment. shake the Pile,
To greet the new-made bride. Are sounds like these,
The proper Prelude to a State of Peace?
Now Industry awakes her busy Sons,
Full-charg’d with News the breathless HawkerHawker: a person who goes from place to place selling goods. The modern equivalent is a pedlar. runs:
Shops