the mere passing gallantry of a compliment:--

"O! should your genius ever rise,
And make you _Laureate_ in the skies,
I'd hold my life, in twenty years,
You'd spoil the _music_ of the _spheres_.
--Nay, should the rapture-breathing Nine
In one celestial concert join,
Their sovereign's power to rehearse,
--Were you to furnish them with verse,
By Jove, I'd fly the heavenly throng,
Though _Phoebus_ play'd and _Linley_ sung."

On the opening of the New Assembly Rooms at Bath, which commenced with a
ridotto, Sept. 30, 1771, he wrote a humorous description of the
entertainment, called "An Epistle from Timothy Screw to his Brother
Henry, Waiter at Almack's," which appeared first in the Bath Chronicle,
and was so eagerly sought after, that Crutwell, the editor, was induced
to publish it in a separate form. The allusions in this trifle have, of
course, lost their zest by time; and a specimen or two of its humor will
be all that is necessary here.

"Two rooms were first opened--the _long_ and the _round_ one,
(These _Hogstyegon_ names only serve to confound one,)
Both splendidly lit with the new chandeliers,
With drops hanging down like the bobs at Peg's ears:
While jewels of _paste_ reflected the rays,
And _Bristol-stone_ diamonds gave strength to the blaze:
So that it was doubtful, to view the bright clusters,
Which sent the most light out, the ear-rings or lustres.