Thou never wilt attempt to cross the Road
Where Alehouse Benches rest the Porter’s Load,
Grievous to heedless Shins: No Barrow’s Wheel,
That bruises oft the Truant School-Boy’s Heel,
Behind thee rolling, with insidious Pace,
Shall mark thy Stocking with a miry Trace.
Let not thy vent’rous Steps approach too nigh
Where, gaping wide, low steepy Cellars lie:
Should thy Shoe wrench aside, down, down you fall,
And overturn the scolding Huckster’sHuckster: merchant selling their wares in a small shop or stall. The word often has a connotation
that specifically denotes that the seller is an unscrupulous or unethical.
stall,
The scolding Huckster shall not o’er thee moan,
But Pence exact for Nuts and Pears o’erthrown.
Though you through cleanlier Allies wind by Day,
Safety first of all to be consider’d.
To shun the Hurries of the public Way,
Yet ne’er to those dark Paths by Night retire;
Mind only Safety, and contemn the Mire.
Then
Then no impervious courts thy Haste detain,
Nor sneering Ale-WivesAle-Wives: women who brew or sell ale. bid thee turn again.
The Danger of crossing a Square by Night.
Where
Lincoln’s-Inn, Wide Space, is rail’d around,
Cross not with vent’rous step; there oft is found
The lurking Thief, who, while the day-light shone,
Made the Walls eccho with his begging Tone:
That Crutch, which late compassion mov’d, shall wound
Thy bleeding Head, and fell thee to the Ground.
Though thou art tempted by the Link-man’s Call,
Yet trust him not along the lonely Wall;
In the Mid-way he’ll quench the flaming Brand,
And share the Booty with the pilf’ring Band.
Still keep the public Streets, where oily Rays,
Shot from the Crystal lamp, o’erspread the ways.
Happy