they look'd upon New-Haven to be in itself the most convenient Place, on the Account of the commodiousness of its Situation, the agreableness of the Air and Soil, and the Cheapness of Commodities ; and that very large Donations had been made towards the Building an House there, without which they had not sufficient to defray the Charge.
The Major Part of the General Assembly, being desirous to strengthen the Hands of the Trustees in the present Difficulties, past the following Vote, in the same Session, viz. 'That under the present Circumstances of the Affairs of the Collegiate School, the Rev. Trustees be advised to proceed in that Affair ; and to finish the House they have built in New-Haven, for the Entertainment of the Scholars belonging to the Collegiate School.'
Thomas Clap, The Annals or History of Yale-College (New Haven, 1766), 2-22 passim.
91. "A poetical Lamentation, occasioned by the Death of His late Majesty King George the First" (1727)
This poem illustrates at once the poetical taste of the time and the undiscriminating loyalty of the colonists. Byles was a minister in Boston; he was renowned as a wit, and, though a known Tory, was permitted to remain in that town throughout the Revolution. — Bibliography: Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, V, 128- 130; Tyler, American Literature, II, 192-198.
NOW, O ye nine ! if all your pow'rs can paint
The scenes of woe which wake this loud complaint,
Breath from my muse such soft and solemn verse,
As suits to strew my matchless Sov'reign's hearse ;
And let my grief in mournful musick glide
To Albion's shores, and join the gen'ral tide.
While in this talk I'd try the tenderest skill,
Beneath the subject sinks my quiv'ring quill,
Restless, my muse her awful theme surveys,
While wounded passions plead for present ease,
My grief grows wild, and strugling sorrows throng
To break in trembling accents from my tongue.
