<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=537864" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Diverting History Of John Gilpin, Showing How He Went Farther Than He Intended, And Came Safe Home Again</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">John Gilpin was a citizen<br>Of credit and renown,<br>A trainband captain eke was he<br>Of famous London town.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">John Gilpin’s spouse said to her dear:<br>Though wedded we have been<br>These twice ten tedious years, yet we<br>No holiday have seen.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">To-morrow is our wedding-day,<br>And we will then repair<br>Unto the Bell at Edmonton<br>All in a chaise and pair.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">My sister, and my sister’s child,<br>Myself, and children three,<br>Will fill the chaise; so you must ride<br>On horseback after we.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He soon replied, I do admire<br>Of womankind but one,<br>And you are she, my dearest dear,<br>Therefore it shall be done.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I am a linendraper bold,<br>As all the world doth know,<br>And my good friend the calendrer<br>Will lend his horse to go.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Quoth Mrs. Gilpin, That’s well said;<br>And for that wine is dear,<br>We will be furnish’d with our own,<br>Which is both bright and clear.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">John Gilpin kiss’d his loving wife;<br>O’erjoy’d was he to find,<br>That, though on pleasure she was bent,<br>She had a frugal mind.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The morning came, the chaise was brought,<br>But yet was not allow’d<br>To drive up to the door, lest all <br>Should say that she was proud.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So three doors off, the chaise was stay’d,<br>Where they did all get in;<br>Six precious souls, and all agog<br>To dash through thick and thin.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Smack went the whip, round went the wheels,<br>Were never folk so glad,<br>The stones did rattle underneath,<br>As if Cheapside were mad.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">John Gilpin at his horse’s side<br>Seized fast the flowing mane,<br>And up he got, in haste to ride,<br>But soon came down again;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For saddletree scarce reach’d had he,<br>His journey to begin,<br>When, turning round his head, he saw<br>Three customers come in.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So down he came; for loss of time,<br>Although it grieved him sore,<br>Yet loss of pence, full well he knew,<br>Would trouble him much more.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">‘Twas long before the customers<br>Were suited to their mind,<br>When Betty screaming came down stairs,<br>“The wine is left behind!”</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Good lack! quoth he—yet bring it me,<br>My leathern belt likewise,<br>In which I bear my trusty sword<br>When I do exercise.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now mistress Gilpin (careful soul!)<br>Had two stone bottles found,<br>To hold the liquor that she loved,<br>And keep it safe and sound.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Each bottle had a curling ear,<br>Through which the belt he drew,<br>And hung a bottle on each side,<br>To make his balance true.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then over all, that he might be<br>Equipp’d from top to toe,<br>His long red cloak, well brush’d and neat,<br>He manfully did throw.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now see him mounted once again<br>Upon his nimble steed,<br>Full slowly pacing o’er the stones,<br>With caution and good heed.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But finding soon a smoother road<br>Beneath his well shod feet,<br>The snorting beast began to trot,<br>Which gall’d him in his seat.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So, fair and softly, John he cried,<br>But John he cried in vain;<br>That trot became a gallop soon,<br>In spite of curb and rein.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So stooping down, as needs he must<br>Who cannot sit upright,<br>He grasp’d the mane with both his hands,<br>And eke with all his might.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">His horse, who never in that sort<br>Had handled been before,<br>What thing upon his back had got<br>Did wonder more and more.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Away went Gilpin, neck or nought;<br>Away went hat and wig;<br>He little dreamt, when he set out,<br>Of running such a rig.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The wind did blow, the cloak did fly,<br>Like streamer long and gay,<br>Till, loop and button failing both,<br>At last it flew away.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then might all people well discern<br>The bottles he had slung;<br>A bottle swinging at each side,<br>As hath been said or sung.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The dogs did bark, the children scream’d,<br>Up flew the windows all;<br>And every soul cried out, Well done!<br>As loud as he could bawl.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Away went Gilpin—who but he?<br>His fame soon spread around,<br>He carries weight! he rides a race!<br>Tis for a thousand pound!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And still, as fast as he drew near,<br>‘Twas wonderful to view,<br>How in a trice the turnpike men<br>Their gates wide open threw.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And now, as he went bowing down<br>His reeking head full low,<br>The bottles twain behind his back<br>Were shatter’d at a blow.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Down ran the wine into the road,<br>Most piteous to be seen,<br>Which made his horse’s flanks to smoke,<br>As they had basted been.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But still he seem’d to carry weight,<br>With leathern girdle braced;<br>For all might see the bottlenecks<br>Still dangling at his waist.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thus all through merry Islington<br>These gambols he did play,<br>Until he came unto the Wash<br>Of Edmonton so gay;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And there he threw the wash about <br>On both sides of the way,<br>Just like unto a trundling mop,<br>Or a wild goose at play.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">At Edmonton, his loving wife<br>From the balcony spied<br>Her tender husband, wondering much<br>To see how he did ride.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Stop, stop, John Gilpin!--Here's the house!<br>They all at once did cry;<br>The dinner waits, and we are tired:<br>Said Gilpin--So am I!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But yet his horse was not a whit<br>Inclined to tarry there;<br>For why?—his owner had a house<br>Full ten miles off, at Ware.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So like arrow swift he flew,<br>Shot by an archer strong?<br>So did he fly—which brings me to<br>The middle of my song.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Away went Gilpin out of breath,<br>And sore against his will,<br>Till at his friend the calendrer’s<br>His horse at last stood still.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The calend’rer, amazed to see<br>His neighbour in such trim,<br>Laid down his pipe, flew to the gate,<br>And thus accosted him:</div><div style="margin:10px 0">What news? what news? your tidings tell;<br>Tell me you must and shall—<br>Say why bareheaded you are come,<br>Or why you come at all?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now Gilpin had a pleasant wit,<br>And loved a timely joke!<br>And thus unto the calendrer<br>In merry guise he spoke:</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I came because your horse would come,<br>And, if I well forebode,<br>My hat and wig will soon be here,<br>They are upon the road.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The calendrer, right glad to find <br>His friend in merry pin,<br>Return’d him not a single word,<br>But to the house went in;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Whence straight he came with hat and wig;<br>A wig that flow’d behind,<br>A hat not much the worse for wear,<br>Each comely in its kind.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He held them up, and in his turn<br>Thus show’d his ready wit:<br>My head is twice as big as yours,<br>They therefore needs must fit.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But let me scrape the dirt away<br>That hangs upon your face;<br>And stop and eat, for well you may<br>Be in a hungry case.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Said John, It is my wedding-day,<br>And all the world would stare,<br>If wife should dine at Edmonton,<br>And I should dine at Ware.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So turning to his horse, he said,<br>I am in haste to dine;<br>‘Twas for your pleasure you came here,<br>You shall go back for mine.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ah luckless speech, and bootless boast!<br>For which he paid full dear;<br>For, while he spake, a braying bunny<br>Did sing most loud and clear;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Whereat his horse did snort, as he<br>Had heard a lion roar,<br>And gallop’d off with all his might,<br>As he had done before.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Away went Gilpin, and away<br>Went Gilpin’s hat and wig:<br>He lost them sooner than at first,<br>For why?—they were too big.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now mistress Gilpin, when she saw<br>Her husband posting down<br>Into the country far away,<br>She pull’d out half-a-crown;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And thus unto the youth she said,<br>That drove them to the Bell,<br>This shall be yours, when you bring back<br>My husband safe and well.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The youth did ride, and soon did meet<br>John coming back amain;<br>Whom in a trice he tried to stop,<br>By catching at his rein;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But, not performing what he meant,<br>And gladly would have done,<br>The frighted steed he frighted more,<br>And made him faster run.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Away went Gilpin, and away<br>Went postboy at his heels,<br>The postboy’s horse right glad to miss<br>The lumbering of the wheels.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Six gentlemen upon the road<br>Thus seeing Gilpin fly,<br>With postboy scampering in the rear,<br>They raised the hue and cry:--</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Stop thief! stop thief!--a highwayman!<br>Not one of them was mute;<br>And all and each that pass’d that way <br>Did join in the pursuit.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And now the turnpike gates again<br>Flew open in short space;<br>The toll-men thinking as before,<br>That Gilpin rode a race.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And so he did, and won it too,<br>For he got first to town;<br>Nor stopp’d till where he had got up <br>He did again get down.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now let us sing, long live the king,<br>And Gilpin, long live he;<br>And when he next doth ride abroad,<br>May I be there to see!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=William+Cowper">William Cowper</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=537864" data-title="The Diverting History Of John Gilpin, Showing How He Went Farther Than He Intended, And Came Safe Home Again" data-description="John Gilpin was a citizen Of credit and renown, A trainband captain eke was he Of famous London town. John Gilpin’s spouse said to her dear: Though wedded we have been These twice ten tedious years, yet we No holiday have seen. To-morrow is ou..."></div> </div> </div>

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