London in verse - Miss Alice

Question of the week: Do you have a favourite London poem or nursery rhyme?

"Prof O'Boyle beat me to the Milne, so I shan't say 'Milne's Changing the Guards', and, instead, go for John Gay's Trivia: Or, the Art of Walking the Streets of London (1716).

It's an epic effusion on the subject of walking London's streets by day and night, in all weathers. Nigh on 200 years later, walking is still the best way to enjoy London, I think. (Good shoes and the right coat are important yet!)

Here's a taste:

"Nor do less certain Signs the Town advise,
Of milder Weather, and serener Skies.
The Ladies gayly dress’d, the Mall adorn
With various Dyes, and paint the sunny Morn;
The wanton Fawns with frisking Pleasure range,
And chirping Sparrows greet the welcome Change:
Not that their Minds with greater Skill are fraught,
Endu’d by Instinct, or by Reason taught,
The Seasons operate on every Breast;
’Tis hence that Fawns are brisk, and Ladies drest.
When on his Box the nodding Coachman snores,
And dreams of fancy’d Fares; when Tavern Doors
The Chairmen idly croud; then ne’er refuse
To trust thy busie Steps in thinner shoes.

But when the swinging Signs your Ears offend
With creaking Noise, then rainy Floods impend;
Soon shall the Kennels swell with rapid Streams,
And rush in muddy Torrents to the Thames.
The Bookseller, whose Shop’s an open Square,
Foresees the Tempest, and with early Care
Of Learning strips the Rails; the rowing Crew
To tempt a Fare, cloath all their Tilts in Blue:
On Hosiers Poles depending Stockings ty’d,
Flag with the slacken’d Gale, from side to side;
Church-Monuments foretell the changing Air;"

- Miss Alice

* Photo by ogoco, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.