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So here is a New Year, and we begin it at Denbigh; the last was a dismal Year indeed, I a glad ’tis over; so many Calamitous Events, so many violent Deaths, so many Innocents slaughter'd by the Executioner—such a Number of Lives lost by Plague in America & the West Indies—were certainly never crouded till now into so short a Space of Time. They were asking me for some Improviso Verses—I gave them these written,—no; but composed—if they deserve the Name of Composition, between eleven and twelve o'Clock last Wednesday Night 31^st Dec^r 1794

After tonight then, We no more

After tonight then, We no more
Must date our Letters Ninety four,
For Time at length has shut his Door,
Against this old Year—Ninety four.
So deep in Guilt, so stained with Gore
Is seventeen hundred Ninety four,
That tho’ our Laureat may deplore
In Odes pathetic—Ninety four:
Those who peruse Historic Lore
Will skip the page at Ninety four.
Had our brave Ancestors of Yore
Dream’d of Deeds done in ninety four—
Their Sons destroy’d, and drain’d their Store,
How had they curs’d this Ninety four !
For not afflicted France has bore
Alone the Ills of Ninety four;
But furthest India’s utmost Shore
Shrinks from the Touch of Ninety four.
Oh may the Storms which round us roar
And fright expiring Ninety four:
With the rough Warnings that they pour
On our bare Heads this Ninety four,
Teach us to give our Follies o’er
And banish Vice with Ninety four.”;

Never in all the half Century I have spent looking on this mortal Life, never we re there so many Adultery Causes brought forward in the Ecclesiastical Courts as this Year 1794. one follows another so rapidly—’tis hocking; nor do the enormous Damages awarded, seem in any wise to lessen their Number. Cases of Seduction too, strange Tales of Ladies taking in young Heirs or wishing to take them in; and Clergymen accused of stealing away Misses, & carrying them from their Father's house—Girls of good Character—and taking them to Brothels—I never knew such Doings in my Life; tis time to hae done with 1794 indeed.