I sold my sheep and lambkins too,
For silver loops and garments blue:
My boxen hautboy sweet of sound,
For lace that edged mine hat around;
For Lightfoot and my scrip I got
A gorgeous sword, and eke a knot.

Gay now renewed his acquaintance with his old schoolfellow, Aaron
Hill, who, it is said, though on doubtful authority, employed him as
an amanuensis when setting on foot the project of answering questions
in a paper, styled the _British Apollo, or, Curious Amusements for the
Ingenious_.[8] The first number of this publication appeared on March
13th, 1708, and it was issued on Wednesdays and Fridays until March
16th, 1711. Gay referred to it in his pamphlet, "The Present State of
Wit," published in May 1711: "Upon a review of my letter, I find I
have quite forgotten the _British Apollo_, which might possibly have
happened from its having of late retreated out of this end of the town
into the country, where I am informed, however, that it still
recommends itself by deciding wagers at cards and giving good advice
to shopkeepers and their apprentices." Whether or no Gay ever
contributed to the _British Apollo_, it seems likely that it was
through the good offices of Hill that in May, 1708, Gay's poem,
"Wine," was published by William Keble at the Black-Spread-eagle in
Westminster Hall, who, about the same time, brought out a translation
by Nahum Tate, the Poet Laureate, and Hill, of a portion of the
thirteenth book of Ovid's "Metamorphoses."

"Wine," a subject on which Gay, even at the age of twenty-two, could
write with some authority, secured a sufficient popularity to be paid