In his cool corner, with his plate of greens?
The great knight Launcelot prefers the Cock,
Where port is excellent (in pints), and waiters
Are portlier than kings, and steaks are tender,
And poets have been known to meditate—
Ox-fed orating ominous ostasticks.
* * * * *
The first edition of The British Birds soon went out of print, and became very scarce. But in December, 1885, Mrs. Mortimer Collins wrote a letter to the editor of Parodies, which has now a melancholy interest:—“I believe copies of British Birds can still be had at Mr. Bentley’s, as I brought out a second edition there some eight years ago. Yes, there are some parodies of Swinburne, Tennyson and Browning. But the best known bits of the book are not parodies, unless you call the whole book a parody of Aristophanes.
“The ‘Positivists’ is the most famous piece in the book, containing the lines:—
“There was an Ape in the days that were earlier;