Water-grass-hill, 20th March.
Sir,—In answer to your application for further scraps of the late P. P., and in reply to your just reproof of my remissness in forwarding, as agreed upon, the monthly supplies to your Miscellany, I have only to plead as my "apology" the "fast of Lent," which in these parts is kept with such rigour as totally to dry up the genial moisture of the brain, and desiccate the καλα ρεεθρα of the fancy. In "justice to Ireland" I must add, that, by the combined exertions of patriots and landlords, we are kept at the proper starving-point all the year round; a blissful state not likely to be disturbed by any provisions in the new Irish "poor law." My correspondence must necessarily be jejune like the season. I send you, however, an appropriate song, which our late pastor used to chaunt over his red-herring whenever a friend from Cork would drop in to partake of such lenten entertainment as his frugal kitchen could afford.
THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC.
A GASTRONOMICAL CHAUNT.
Sunt Aries, Taurus, Cancer, Leo, Scorpio, Virgo, Libraque et Arcitenens, Gemini, Caper, Amphora, Pisces.
I. Of a tavern the Sun every month takes "the run," And a dozen each year wait his wishes; One month with old Prout he takes share of a trout, And puts up at the sign of The Fishes. ♓ 'Tis an old-fashioned inn, but more quiet within Than The Bull♉ or The Lion♌ —both boisterous; And few would fain dwell at The Scorpion ♏-hôtel, Or The Crab ♋...But this last is an oyster-house.
II. At the sign of The Scales ♎fuller measure prevails; At The Ram ♈ the repast may be richer: Old Goëthe oft wrote at the sign of The Goat, ♑ Tho' at times he'd drop in at The Pitcher; ♒ And those who have stay'd at the sign of The Maid, ♍ In desirable quarters have tarried; While some for their sins must put up with The Twins, ♊ Having had the mishap to get married.
III. But The Fishes ♓ combine in one mystical sign A moral right apt for the banquet; And a practical hint, which I ne'er saw in print, Yet a Rochefoucault maxim I rank it:— If a secret I'd hide, or a project confide, To a comrade's good faith and devotion, Oh! the friend whom I'd wish, though he drank like a fish, Should be mute as the tribes of the ocean.