The Book-Plate's Petition.

By A Gentleman Of The Temple.     While cynic CHARLES still trimm'd the vane     'Twixt Querouaille and Castlemaine,     In days that shocked JOHN EVELYN,     My First Possessor fixed me in.     In days of Dutchmen, and of frost,     The narrow sea with JAMES I cross'd,     Returning when once more began     The Age of Saturn and of ANNE.     I am a part of all the past;     I knew the GEORGES, first and last;     I have been oft where else was none     Save the great wig of ADDISON;     And seen on shelves beneath me grope     The little eager form of POPE.     I lost the Third that owned me when     French NOAILLES fled at Dettingen;     The year JAMES WOLFE surpris'd Quebec,     The Fourth in hunting broke his neck;     The day that WILLIAM HOGARTH dy'd,     The Fifth one found me in Cheapside.     This was a Scholar, one of those     Whose Greek is sounder than their hose;     He lov'd old Books and nappy ale,     So liv'd at Streatham, next to THRALE.     'Twas there this stain of grease I boast     Was made by Dr. JOHNSON'S toast.     (He did it, as I think, for Spite;     My Master call'd him Jacobite!)     And now that I so long to-day     Have rested post discrimina,     Safe in the brass-wir'd book-case where     I watch'd the Vicar's whit'ning hair,     Must I these travell'd bones inter     In some Collector's sepulchre!     Must I be torn herefrom and thrown     With frontispiece and colophon!     With vagrant E's, and I's, and O's,     The spoil of plunder'd Folios!     With scraps and snippets that to ME     Are naught but kitchen company!     Nay, rather, FRIEND, this favour grant me:     Tear me at once; but don't transplant me.     Cheltenham,     Sept. 31, 1792.