Since he no more can build, and plant, and revel,
The duke and dean seem near upon a level.
O! wert thou not a duke, my good Duke Humphry,
From bailiffs claws thou scarce couldst keep thy bum free.
A duke to know a dean! go, smooth thy crown:
Thy brother[3](far thy better) wore a gown.
Well, but a duke thou art; so please the king:
O! would his majesty but add a string!
[Footnote 1: James Brydges, who was created Duke of Chandos in 1719, and
built the magnificent house at Canons near Edgware, celebrated by Pope in
his "Moral Essays," Epistles iii and iv. For a description of the
building, see De Foe's "Tour through Great Britain," cited in Carruthers'
edition of Pope, vol. i, p. 482. At the sale of the house by the second
Duke in 1747, Lord Chesterfield purchased the hall pillars for the house
he was then building in May Fair, where they still adorn the entrance
hall of Chesterfield House. He used to call them his _Canonical_
pillars.--_W. E. B_.]
[Footnote 2: In allusion to the Duke's difficulties caused by the failure
of his speculative investments.--_W. E. B_.]
[Footnote 3: The Hon. Henry Brydges, Archdeacon of Rochester.
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