His name—they called it Brimblecomb;

He stole the tailor’s needle and shears,

But couldn’t make the thimble come.”

Butler’s facility in overcoming stubborn words is amusing. For instance:—

There was an ancient sage philosopher,

Who had read Alexander Ross over.

Coleridge, on the eve of his departure from Göttingen, being requested by a student of the same class in the university to write in his Stammbuch, or album, complied as follows:—

We both attended the same college,

Where sheets of paper we did blur many;

And now we’re going to sport our knowledge,