the evening, after returning home, we were sitting by the fire, feeling comfortable and chatty, when I proposed to Mrs. Hitching the following enigma from the pen of the late Henry Mayhew:
The Vide Vorld you may search, and my fellow not find;
I dwells in a Wacuum, deficient in Vind;
In the Wisage I'm seen—in the Woice I am heard,
And yet I'm inwisible, gives went to no Vurd.
I'm not much of a Vag, for I'm vanting in Vit;
But distinguished in Werse for the Wollums I've writ.
I'm the head of all Willains, yet far from the Vurst—
I'm the foremost in Wice, though in Wirtue the first.
I'm not used to Veapons, and ne'er goes to Vor;
Though in Walour inwincible—in Wictory sure;
The first of all Wiands and Wictuals is mine—
Rich in Wen'son and Weal, but deficient in Vine.
To Wanity given, I in Welwets abound;
But in Voman, in Vife, and in Vidow ain't found:
Yet conspicuous in Wirgins, and I'll tell you, between us,
To persons of taste I'm a bit of a Wenus;
Yet none take me for Veal—or for Voe in its stead,
For I ranks not among the sweet Voo'd, Vun, and Ved!
Before the recital of the enigma was half completed, Mrs. Hitching laughed heartily—she saw, of course, the meaning of it—that it was a play upon the Cockney error of using the V instead of the W, and the latter instead of the V. Several times, as I proceeded, she exclaimed "
H
excellent!
h
excellent!" and when I had finished, she remarked that is was very "
h
ingenious," and enough to "
h