to Daniel Webster, who said in a speech of July 17, 1850:
"They have been beaten incessantly every month, and every day, and every hour, by the din, and roll, and rub-a-dub of the Abolition presses."
Dr. L. adds:
"No dictionary in my possession has rub-a-dub; by and by the lexicographer will admit this, as yet, half-wild word."
My note is, that though this word be not recognised by the dictionaries, yet it is by no means so new as Dr. L. supposes; for I distinctly remember that, some four-and-twenty years ago, one of those gay-coloured books so common on the shelves of nursery libraries had, amongst other equally recherché couplets, the following attached to a gaudy print of a military drum:
"Not a rub-a-dub will come
To sound the music of a drum:"
—no great authority certainly, but sufficient to give the word a greater antiquity than Dr. L. claims for it; and no doubt some of your readers will be able to furnish more dignified instances of its use.
J. Eastwood.
Ecclesfield.