button to main menu  Dr Syntax in Search of the Picturesque, plate 7

button NOTES from DR SYNTAX'S TOUR, 1812
Plate 7 opposite p.38:-

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DOCTOR SYNTAX ENTERTAINED AT COLLEGE.
In Oxford he sets down at the Mitre and learns that Dicky Band, an undergraduate friend, is now Provost of his College at £1200 pa., so he gets an invitation to dine.
relevant text:-

PROVOST.
"Good Doctor Syntax, I rejoice
"Once more to hear your well known voice;
"To dine with us I hope you'll stay,-
"There is a college-feast to-day.
"Full many a year is gone and past
"Since we beheld each other last.-
"Fortune has kindle dealt with me,
"As you, my friend, may clearly see;
"And pray how has she dealt with thee?"

SYNTAX.
"Alas! alas! I've play'd the fool;
"I took a wife, and keep a school;
"And, while on dainties you are fed,
"I scarce get butter on my bread,"
...

SYNTAX.
"...
"I'm going further on a scheme,
"Which you may think an idle dream;
"At the famed Lakes to take a look,
"And of my Journey make a Book."
...

"...
"Could Doctor G--- in chariot ride,
"And take each day his wine, beside,
"If he did not contrive to cook,
"Each year, his Tour into a book;
"A flippant, flashy, flow'ry style,
"A lazy morning to beguile;
"With, ev'ry other leaf, a print
"Of some fine view in aqua-tint'?
"Such is the book I mean to make,
"And I've no doubt the work will take;
"For tho' your wisdom may decry it,
"The simple folk will surely buy it.
"I will allow it is but trash,
"But then it furnishes the cash."
By the clumsiness of the college staff the dinner is ruined.

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