M 343

VERSES. Miscellaneous incomplete or undated poems

(1) "The little silver bell does tinkle."

(2) "Twenty two Forresters clothed in green."

(3) "Lurgan Clanbrassil."

(4) "Ev'n irish Burke himself thy discipline shall tame."

(5) "The man who in hot India's land of crimes."

(6) "The two Scotch Knights."

(7) Epigram on Sir Thomas Rumbold.

(8) On the threat of the French fleet: "Let the old hectring King of France."

(9) Lines written en route to the Northern Circuit ... March 1786.

(10) "Leave Lawyers your wrangling and come sport and play."

(11) "Lord Lansdowne."

(12) "O my charming Mary Masters."

Lurgan Clanbrassil

The note signed "HWR".

The writer's father heard that JB
used to sing the song on the Home
Circuit and asked JB for a copy.

This is a transcript of the copy JB
made for him.

JB was a friend of Dilly's attorn-
ey, Richard, They were intimate
enough so that Rudd might well
have asked JB for a copy.

HWR could be a son of Richard Rudd.

I have searched in the Cambridge
and Oxford lists, the Musgrove
obits, and the Gent.Mag. obit in-
dex but could find no one to cor-
respond with either Richard Rudd
or HWR.

[Charnwood Autograph Collection, now in BM, Loan 60, vol. 2, 10(4).]

In Boswell's hand: ]

Lurgan Clanbrassil

A supposed Irish Song

Tune Drunk at night and dry in the morning

O Lurgan Clanbrassil! how sweet is thy sound
To my tender remembrance as Love's sacred ground
For there gentle Fainelah first charm'd my sight
And fill'd my young heart with a fluttering delight.

When I thought her my own O! too short seem'd the day
In a jaunt to Down Patrick, or a trip to the sea:
To describe what I felt then all language were vain,
'Twas in truth what the Poets have studied to feign.

But I found oh! alas! that ev'n she could deceive;
Then nothing was left but to sigh, weep and rave;
Distracted I fled from my dear native shore
Resolved to see Lurgan Clanbrassil no more.

Yet still in some moments enchanted I find
A warm ray of her fondness beam soft on my mind:
While thus in bright fancy my Angel I see,
All the world is a Lurgan Clanbrassil to me!

[On the outside leaf (reverse of a folded folio sheet) a large hand has written:] Llurgan Clanbrassil

Boswell

[On the other half of this half sheet is written:]

The enclosed Song was written & composed by James Boswell the Biographer of Johnson in commemoration of a Tour he made with Mrs Rudd whilst she was under his protection. for living with whom he displeased his father so much that he threatened to disinherit him --

Mrs Rudd had lived with one of the Perreaus, who were tried and executed for Forgery -- She was tried at the same time & acquitted.

My father having heard that Boswell used to sing this Song on the Home Circuit requested it of him. & he [Boswell] wrote it out and gave it to him.

HWR

July, 1820

M 343 :14

SJ's powers are brought to bear on various foibles or shortcomings of members of the Literary Club. The poem has echoes of Bishop Barnard's set of verses composed after an altercation with SJ (see *Life* iv.115n, 431-3); the crossed out portions of the line about Barnard refer to these, especially.

 Dating:- JB probably wrote these verses before Apr 1783, when Jones went to India. The references to Burke seem to be applicable in 1781.

Note the similarity in the line about William Scott with the line in M 330: "There's Q in the corner sly _Scotty_ so snug."

Mr. Tom Davis (Jan 1970) points out that these verses may be an un-
published portion of P 122 (old no. P 62) no.2, JB's Verses on the
Bishop of Peterborough ... being elected a Member of the Literary
Club. In which case, Hinchcliffe, _not_ SJ, exerts his discipline on
members of the Club. The date would be soon after 27 March 1792.

M 343:9

Dating, etc.: I can only connect this very uncertainly with March 1786. (1) T.D.Boswell's note (C 508) *may* refer to his not being able to get accommodations on the stage coach north for JB on that day. The Journal shows that JB left London on 9 March for the Northern Circuit; the Journal gives no indication however that JB was delayed in his plans to leave for the Circuit. There is no evidence that JB left London in March 1787.

(2) the verses: The inference to be gathered from them is that they were written while travelling in a vehicle, the writing is so very uneven; also, "your gate was bar'd" suggests that he was calling on a lady at her estate. I could find nothing in the *Survey Gazetteer* resembling any reading I was able to make of the name of the estate in any region where JB might have traveled, in this jaunt.

(3) the endorsement "Stranger and Bell". I once entertained the idea that this might be the name of an Inn. I believe it more reasonable to suppose that JB used the sheet as a wrapper for some document(s) concerning "Stranger and Bell". The only evidence that could possibly be made to support it is was an entry in the Reg. Let., Rec'd 23 Mar 1786 (JB then at York on the Circuit -- he went 9 Mar, ret'd 9 Apr --

(continued)

M 343:9

card 2

(Expense Acct.): "Capt Bell of the 46 Reg't to know if I as acting
for the Executors of Lieut. Alexr Cuninghame will pay a debt claimed
by William Guthrie a soldier in his company", and, Sent 26 March
1786, "Capt Bell of the 46th Regt a full explanation of my concern
with Guthrie's claim on the Executors of Lieut Al Cuninghame, for
whom I do not act." David Cuninghame in his letter to JB 14 Feb
1787 alludes to this business (C 873).

Alexander Cuninghame died 1 Feb 1784.

The Army list 1786 gives Bryan Bell, Capt in the 46th Regt of Foot,
date of rank 18 Aug 1778; he also appears thus in the 1785 and 1787
lists.

VERSES

See Also:

L 31 Verses in praise of SJ

L 492 Verses on Lord Eglinton composed at Newmarket, 1760

*L 506 "Epistle to Lady Mcintosh"

*L 507 "Ode to Gluttony" (extract)

L 676 To John Johnston of Grange. "Ye elves ..."

L 731 Ten-line verses on Grange

L 732 Epitaph on himself

L 791 Song in Scots dialect on the Douglas Cause

L 837 Verses in French for Caroline Kircheisen

L 964 "Ode to Ambition" (extract)

M 116 Songs in "Give your Son his Will"

M 134 "Justiciary Opera" songs

C 285 "On Elijah Impey", stanzas 4 and 5

C 3009 "On Geese" (with James Trower)