A PARODY ON " THE BRIDE OF ABYDOS." [TO THE
EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR.")
Sie,—In answer to your correspondent " X." of July 15th, I think I can give him the lines he wants from the " Parody on the 'Bride of Abydos,'" and I enclose them, though I am sorry to say I cannot state where they came from, as I only ha :a them from a " Common-place Book " of about 1889 and later. Should any other reader give you the origin of them, it would be kind of you to send it to me.—I am, Sir, &e., Kingswood House, Twyford, Berks. (Mss.) M. C. NOBLE.
PARODY ON THE " BRIDE OF ABYDOS."
" Know ye the land where the reeds and the rushes Are the signs of the rankness innate in its clime,
Where the toad or the reptile to show itself blushes.
And the air is polluted and tainted with crime?
Know ye the land of bogs and of walls Where the sun never shines and the rain ever falls.
Where the cornfields lie waste, for the sons of the soil To whiskey are given and adverse to toil, Where landlords, by daylight, like woodcocks, they shoot, And the voice of the mendicant never is mute?
Whose sons with savages, none can deny, In sense though inferior, in sunning may vie, Where the promise means nought and the truth means a lie.
Where the cabins of men are the homes of the swine.
And the stench of the Homestead is aught but divine.
To the land of the West, great, glorious, and free,
First flower of the ocean, first gem of the sea,
The shortest of methods. Oh ! could we but learn To the depths of the sea that Gem to return."
[Several correspondents have sent us versions of this parody. Sir Henry Knollys says that when he was quartered in Ireland in 1876 the rhyme was current among British officers. He adds: " Apparently after a lapse of forty-six years their opinions remain unchanged." Lady Mordaunt thinks that the lines may have been written by the late Mr. Bromley-Davenport, of Capesthorne, Cheshire.—En. Spectator.]
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