UPON HER MAIESTIES New Buildings at SOMERSET-HOUSE.
GReat Queen, That does our Island bless
With Princes, and with Palaces;
Treated so ill, chac'd from your throne,
Returning you adorn the town,
And with a brave revenge do show,
Their glory went, and came with you;
While Peace from hence, and you were gone
Your houses in that Storm o'rethrown,
Those wounds which Civil Rage did give,
At once you pardon and Relieve:
Constant to England in your love,
As Birds are to their wonted Grove,
[...]hough by rude hands their Nests are spoil'd,
There, the next Spring, again they build:
Accusing some malignant Star,
Not Britain, for that fatal War,
Your kindness banishes your fear,
Resolv'd to fix for ever here:
But what new Myne this work supplies?
Can such a pile from Ruine rise?
This like the first Creation shows,
As if at your Command it rose;
Frugality, and Bounty too,
Those differing virtues, meet in you;
From a Confin'd well manag'd store
You both imploy, and feed the poor:
Let Forein Princes vainly boast
The rude effects of Pride, and Cost,
Of vaster Fabriques, to which They
Contribute nothing, but the Pay:
This, by the Queen her self design'd,
Gives us a pattern of her mind;
The state, and order does proclaim
The Genius of that Royal Dame,
Each part with just proportion grac'd,
And all to such advantage plac'd
That the fair view her Window yields,
The Town, the River, and the Fields
Entring, Beneath us, we descry,
And wonder how we came so high;
She needs no weary steps ascend,
All seems before her feet to bend,
And here, as She was born, She lies
High, without taking pains to rise.
London, Printed for Henry Herringman at the Anchor in the Lower Walk in the New-Exchange. Anno Dom. 1665.