THE TWO FATAL CHIROPEDISTS.
Our great ancestor, Joe Miller, has recorded, in his “Booke of Jestes,” an epitaph written upon an amateur corn-cutter, named Roger Horton, who,
“Trying one day his corn to mow off,
The razor slipp’d, and cut his toe off.”
The painful similarity of his fate with that of another corn experimentalist, has given rise to the following:—
EPITAPH ON LORD JOHN RUSSELL, WHO EXPIRED POLITICALLY, AFTER A LINGERING ILLNESS, ON MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 30, 1841.
In Minto quies.
Beneath this stone lies Johnny Russell,
Who for his place had many a tussel.
Trying one day the corn to cut down,
The motion fail’d, and he was put down.
The benches which he nearly grew to,
The Opposition quickly flew to;
The fact it was so mortifying,
That little Johnny took to dying.