Carmen, transform’d, the groaning Load shall draw,
Whom other Tyrants, with the Lash, shall awe.
The most inconvenient Streets to Walkers.
Who would of
Watling-Street the Dangers share,
When the broad Pavement of
Cheap-Side is near?
*Thames Street.
Or who* that rugged Street would traverse o’er,
That stretches, O Fleet-ditch! from thy black Shore
To the Tow’rs moated Walls? Here Steams ascend
That, in mix’d Fumes, the wrinkled Nose offend.
Where Chandlers Cauldrons boil; where fishy Prey
Hide the wet Stall, long absent from the Sea;
And where the Cleaver chops the Heifer’s Spoil,Heifer’s Spoil: the fat used by candle-makers.
And where huge Hogsheads sweat with trainy Oil,trainy Oil: oil taken from the carcass of a whale.
Thy breathing Nostril hold; but how shall I
✝ Cheshire anciently so called.
Pass, where in Piles ✝ Cornavian Cheeses lye;
Cheese, that the Table’s closing Rites denies,
And bids me with th’ unwilling Chaplain rise.
O bear
The Pell-mell celebrated.
O bear me to the Paths of fair
Pell-Mell,Pell-mell: a street in Westminster (also spelled Pall Mall). The word also means
confusion, disorder, and indiscriminate mingling.
Safe are thy Pavements, grateful is thy Smell!
At distance, rolls along the gilded Coach,
Nor sturdy Carmen on thy Walks encroach;
No Lets would bar thy Ways, were Chairs deny’d,
The soft Supports of Laziness and Pride;
Shops breathe Perfumes, thro’ Sashes Ribbons glow,
The mutual Arms of Ladies, and the Beau.
Yet still ev’n Here, when Rains the Passage hide,
Oft’ the loose Stone spirts up a muddy Tide
Beneath thy careless Foot; and from on high,
Where Masons mount the Ladder, Fragments fly;
Mortar, and crumbled Lime in Show’rs descend,
And o’er thy Head destructive Tiles impend.
The Pleasure of walking through the Alley.
But sometimes let me leave the noisie Roads,
And silent wander in the close Abodes
Where