But,--talk of Sir Boyle Roche's bird![3]
To compare him with Hodgson is absurd.
"Which way, sir, pray, is the doctor gone?"--
"He is now at his living at Hillingdon."--
"No, no,--you're out, by many a mile,
"He's away at his Deanery in Carlisle."--
"Pardon me, sir; but I understand
"He's gone to his living in Cumberland."--
"God bless me, no,--he can't be there;
"You must try St. George's, Hanover Square."
Thus all in vain the Saint inquired,
From living to living, mockt and tired;--
'Twas Hodgson here, 'twas Hodgson there,
'Twas Hodgson nowhere, everywhere;
Till fairly beat the Saint gave o'er
And flitted away to the Stygian shore,
To astonish the natives underground
With the comical things he on earth had found.
[1] The wig, which had so long formed an essential part of the dress of an
English bishop, was at this time beginning to be dispensed with.
[2] 1 John v. 7. A text which, though long given up by all the rest of the
orthodox world, is still pertinaciously adhered to by this Right Reverend
scholar.
[3] It was a saying of the well-known Sir Boyle, that "a man could not be
in two places at once, unless he was a bird."
THOUGHTS ON TAR BARRELS.
(VIDE DESCRIPTION OF A LATE FETE.)[1]
1832.
What a pleasing contrivance! how aptly devised
'Twixt tar and magnolias to puzzle one's noses!
And how the tar-barrels must all be surprised
To find themselves seated like "Love among roses!"
What a pity we can't, by precautions like these,
Clear the air of that other still viler infection;
That radical pest, that old whiggish disease,
Of which cases, true-blue, are in every direction.
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