NOCTES AMBROSIANÆ.

XXV.

(JUNE 1830.)

ΧΡΗ ΔΕΝ ΣΥΜΠΟΣΙΩ ΚΥΛΙΚΩΝ ΠΕΡΙΝΙΣΣΟΜΕΝΑΩΝ
ΗΔΕΑ ΚΩΤΙΛΛΟΝΤΑ ΚΑΘΗΜΕΝΟΝ ΟΙΝΟΠΟΤΑΖΕΙΝ.

[This is a distich by wise old Phocylides,

An ancient who wrote crabbed Greek in no silly days;

PHOC. ap. Ath.

Meaning, "TIS RIGHT FOR GOOD WINE-BIBBING PEOPLE,

NOT TO LET THE JUG PACE ROUND THE BOARD LIKE A CRIPPLE;
BUT GAILY TO CHAT WHILE DISCUSSING THEIR TIPPLE."

An excellent rule of the hearty old cock 'tis—
And a very fit motto to put to our Noctes.]

C. N. ap. Ambr.

Scene, The Arbour, Buchanan Lodge. Time,-Eight o'clock. Present,-NORTH, ENGLISH OPIUM-EATER, SHEPHERD, and TICKLER. Table with light wines, oranges, biscuits, almonds, and raisins.

Shepherd. Rain but no star-proof, this bonny bee-hummin, bird-nest-concealin Bower, that seems, but for the trelliswark peepin out here and there where the later flowerin-shrubs are scarcely yet out o' the bud, rather a production o' Nature's sel, than o' the gardener's genius. O, sir, but in its bricht and balmy beauty 'tis even nae less than a perfeck Poem!

North. Look, James, how she cowers within her couchonly the point of her bill, the tip of her tail, visible-so pas

VOL. III.

A