University of Virginia Library

Lines Left at Hook's House in June, 1834.

As Dick and I
Were a-sailing by
At Fulham Bridge, I cock'd my eye,
And says I, “Add-zooks!
There's Theodore Hook's.
Whose Sayings and Doings make such pretty books.
“I wonder,” says I,
Still keeping my eye
On the house, “if he's in—I should like to try;”
With his oar on his knee,
Says Dick, says he,
“Father, suppose you land and see!”
“What! land and sea,”
Says I to he;
“Together! why, Dick, why how can that be?”
And my comical son,
Who is fond of fun,
I thought would have split his sides at the pun.

172

So we rows to shore,
And knocks at the door—
When William, a man I'd seen often before,
Makes answer and says,
“Master's gone in a chaise
Call'd a homnibus, drawn by a couple of bays.”
So I says then,
“Just lend me a pen;”
“I wull, sir,” says William—politest of men,
So having no card, these poetical brayings
Are the record I leave of my doings and sayings.