Richard Harris Barham, author of the Ingoldsby Legends, was an intimate friend of Hook.
Like many another true humorist he was of the clergy, being a minor canon of St. Paul’s cathedral.
His delightful tales are too long to quote, and only some shorter pieces may be given.
Barham was among the first to raise parody to a recognized art.
A “TRUE AND ORIGINAL” VERSION
In the autumn of 1824, Captain Medwin having hinted that certain beautiful lines on the burial of Sir John Moore might have been the production of Lord Byron’s muse, the late Mr. Sidney Taylor, somewhat indignantly, claimed them for their rightful owner, the Rev. Charles Wolfe. During the controversy a third claimant started up in the person of a soi-disant “Doctor Marshall,” who turned out to be a Durham blacksmith, and his pretensions a hoax. It was then that a certain “Dr. Peppercorn” put forth his pretensions, to what he averred was the only “true and original” version, viz.—
Not a sous had he got,—not a guinea or note,
And he looked confoundedly flurried,
As he bolted away without paying his shot,