Letter from James Hay Beattie Letter from James Hay Beattie, in verse, entitled 'Delphinum sylvis appingit'. With note at head of letter stating that this was 'Supposed to have been intended as an invitation of Dryden's versification'. "Dolphin, approach: and leave the dainty shrine Of Pope, and rest a while secure at mine. Let Pope the chain'd antithesis prolong, and trimly trip it in laborious song: Despising low penurians art, I call The Muse to join wild nature's medrigal; I see the Lark his little plume display, and sing, and soar, and vanish into day; I roam the savage mountain's howling tracts, Hear ocean rage, and tumbling cataracts: - and shall I curb my rapid view, to themes of leaves and flowers, of grottoes, groves and streams? No: for I scorn the prostituted lays; And surly blame prefer to fawning praise. No: I will sing of pipes, where water runs, By Leslie hewn, and varnish'd, and made guns; Redoubts; and grim artillery yawning o'er The cripple hermit's paint - bespatter'd door; Triumphal arches of eternal brick, Full six feet high, and full ten inches thick. A Dolphin once, inspired by verse divine, Plough'd with his boring snout the watery brine: - And O, if dolphins yet a song can move, There awful eyesores from my seat remove; So every work of thine thy poet shall approve. Else at the barn let me my post maintain, To scare the chattering sparrows from thy grain: and , as the battle's front must threaten here, Plant in my place you blowsy grenadier". 28 February 1788