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THE DOCTOR A TRUE TALE. 



IN Essex there liv'd, ah ! woe worth the day 



That calPd him from all his companions away, 



A doctor well known, and of knowledge profound, 



Of physic, of music, of horse, and of hound ; 



As physician or sportsman, or sober or mellow, 



The doctor was hail'd as a right honest fellow. 



'Twas a southerly wind, and the morning was fair, 



So the doctor soon mounted his three-legged mare*; 



Three legs I have said, but this is not quite true, 



She had gone to my knowledge four seasons on two, 



Though the others, no doubt, were by nature intended 



To serve as two more : so they might, were they mended. 



No matter, the doctor this cripple bestrode, 



Who came in her turn for the field and the road, 



And, resolv'd with the hounds to come in for a treat, 



He started for Mucking, the name of the " meet : " 



But he thought him two birds with one stone he might slay, 



If he call'd on a medical friend on his way, 



For he knew a rich patient they both had been plucking 



Was breathing his last 'twixt B y and Mucking, 



So could he contrive to arrive at his door 

 Before he was dead there was one guinea more ; 

 So the doctor continued his journey to urge on, 

 Till he came in due time to the house of the surgeon ; 

 There loudly he hallooed, which shows the condition 

 Of surgeon is held at beneath the physician. 

 The surgeon threw down both his potion and pill, 

 To wait on the man who had licence to kill : 



* Five sound legs among three horses was the maximum 

 average in the doctor's stud. 



