HUMOURS OF OUR LANGUAGE
(Or, MORE “POETS AT PLAY.”)
The anomalies of English spelling and pronunciation have many a time served our humorous writers with capital material for their rhymes. The following is one of the cleverest of the kind referred to:—
As a farmer was going to plough,
He met a man driving a cough,
They had words which led to a rough,
And the farmer was struck on his brough.
One day when the weather was rough,
An old lady went out for some snough,
Which she thoughtlessly placed in her mough,
And it got scattered all over her cough.
While a baker was kneading his dough,
A weight fell down on his tough,
When he suddenly exclaimed ough!
Because it had hurt him sough.
There was a hole in a hedge to get through,
It was made by no one knew whough;
In getting through a boy lost his shough,
And was quite at a loss what to dough.
A poor old man had a bad cough,
To a doctor he straight went ough,
The doctor did nothing but scough,
And said ’twas all fancy, his cough.
A QUEER CUT.
Well! Perhaps Messrs. Quarto, Canto, and Sons, the well known publishers, have some right to complain of the artist who sent in this as one of the illustrations for their forthcoming edition of Byron. The artist says it illustrates the line: