io8 THE EARLY DAYS OF 



pointing to his own case as an instance of its bad effects, at the 

 same time advising all his hearers to spend every farthing they 

 possessed. 



I may also mention among the advantages which the English 

 labourer has, so little does he know about compulsory military 

 service, which all have reason to dislike abroad, that in the hay- 

 field, during the luncheon hour, when I repeated Dibdin's justly 

 celebrated, "All's well," and invited my hearers to explain 



" The sentry walks his lonely round," 



they replied that all must know a sentry is synonymous with a 

 hundred years. 



The song has reference to the soldier and the sailor, but one of my 

 men who has a poetic turn of mind, requested permission to supply 

 another verse introducing the agricultural labourer. A request 

 with which I readily complied, and received the following, almost 

 impromptu, lines : 



"And on the agricultural ground. 

 When snow and frost lie thick around, 

 Careless alike of wind and cold, 

 The faithful shepherd guards his fold ; 

 And as he tends the sheep with care, 

 The farmer's voice salutes his ear : 

 What-cheer ? ^'Joseph quickly tell ! 

 The cows ? The colts ? 

 Good night ! All's well ! " 



This man's father and grandfather were also poetic in their way, 

 and, so tradition runs, they possessed the faculty of " rhyming 

 almost anything." After a fashion, which appears to have been 

 current in old days. 



Johnson : " Sir ! I composed a good line yesterday." 



Goldsmith : "Then, let us have it, and I will add a bad one to it." 



• Joseph Shirley, who was acting as my shepherd then. 



