shing at Windsor. Their occasion was
the setting up in the stocks-market in the City of London of a statue of
the king by Sir Robert Viner, a city knight, to whom Charles was very
heavily in debt. Sir Robert, having a frugal mind, had acquired a statue
of John Sobieski trampling on the Turk, which, judiciously altered, was
made to pass muster so as to represent the Pensioner of Louis the
Fourteenth and the Vendor of Dunkirk trampling on Oliver Cromwell.

"As cities that to the fierce conqueror yield
Do at their own charges their citadels build;
So Sir Robert advanced the King's statue in token
Of bankers defeated, and Lombard Street broken.

Some thought it a knightly and generous deed,
Obliging the city with a King and a steed;
When with honour he might from his word have gone back;
He that vows in a calm is absolved by a wrack.

But now it appears, from the first to the last,
To be a revenge and a malice forecast;
Upon the King's birthday to set up a thing
That shows him a monkey much more than a King.

When each one that passes finds fault with the horse,
Yet all do affirm that the King is much worse;
And some by the likeness Sir Robert suspect
That he did for the King his own statue erect.

Thus to see him disfigured--the herb-women chid,
Who up on their panniers more gracefully rid;
And so loose in his seat--that all persons agree,
E'en Sir William Peak[215:1] sits much firmer than he.

But Sir Robert affirms that we do him much wrong;
'Tis the 'graver at work, to reform him, so long;
But, alas! he will never arrive at his end,
For it is such a King as no chisel can mend.

But with all his errors restore us our King,
If ever you hope in December for spring;
For though all the world cannot show such another,
Yet we'd rather have him than his bigoted brother."

Of a more exalted vein of satire the following extract may serve as an
example:--

BRITANNIA AND RALEIGH

"_Brit._ Ah! Raleigh, when thou didst thy breath resign
To trembling James, would I had quitted mine.
Cubs didst thou call them? Hadst thou seen this brood
Of earls, and dukes, and princes of the blood,
No more of Scottish race thou would'st complain,
Those would be blessings in this spurious reign.
Awake, arise from thy long blessed repose,