Jonathan Swift

Drapier’s Hill

WE give the world to understand
Our thriving Dean has purchased land;
A purchase which will bring him clear
Above his rent four pounds a year,
Provided, to improve the ground,
He will but add two hundred pound,
And from his endless hoarded store,
To build a house, five hundred more.
Sir Arthur, too, shall have his will,
And call the mansion Drapier’s Hill;
That, when a nation, long enslaved,
Forgets by whom it once was saved,
When none the Drapier’s praise shall sing,
His signs aloft no longer swing,
His medals and his prints forgotten,
And all his handkerchiefs are rotten,
His famous letters made waste paper,
This hill may keep the name of Drapier;
In spite of envy, flourish still,
And Drapier’s vie with Cooper’s Hill.