The following extracts from one of the imitations, written by F. E. Smedley, show that he had caught the knack of Barham’s versification. Unfortunately the poem is too long to quote in full:—
The Enchanted Net.
There were sundry strange monsters existing of old,
Could we only give credit to half we are told,
As evinced (on the ex pede Herculean plan,
Which from merely a footstep presumes the whole man)
By our Savans disturbing those very large bones,
Which have turned (for the rhyme’s sake, perhaps) into stones,
And have chosen to wait a
Long while hid in strata,