THE SCOFFER ABROAD 179 



him, whose heads might be on the same plane with the 

 most noble President's ten toes " ; but 



" Th' uncourtly Doctor [Horsley], hostile to the scheme, 

 Gave a loud horse laugh, and dissolved the dream." 



When a little boy at school, he " munched spiders upon 

 his bread-and-butter." Now : "his dinners are the 

 wonder of the Nation." 



Worse than all this he was, in public, " spoke to by 

 the King and Queen." 



" Enter Sir Joseph, gladdening Royal eyes. 

 What holds his hand ? a Box of Butterflies ! 

 Grubs, nests, and eggs of humming-birds to please, 

 Newts, tadpoles, brains of beetles, stings of bees. ..." 



There are several entire pieces addressed to Sir Joseph, 

 as, An Ode on the Report that Sir Joseph Banks was 

 made a Privy Councillor, very amusing ; and Sir Joseph 

 Banks and the Emperor of Morocco. Peter's Prophecy is 

 a third short poem (with frontispiece, by Rowlandson), 

 altogether coarse and reckless ; a production that must 

 have tasked heavily the good-humour of Banks's 

 friends. 1 



Thus the Pigmy ; taking measure of a giant. 



One of the oddest supercheries of the day was a pre- 

 tended diary of the King, in which he is supposed to be 

 portraying the characters, and arraigning the motives, 

 of some of the courtiers. 2 He suspects that each one has 

 his own axe to grind. For example : 



1 Peter's Prophecy ; or the President and Poet, or an important 

 Epistle to Sir Joseph Banks on the approaching election of a President of 

 the Royal Society (London, 1788). The scene portrayed by the artist 

 is a Club dinner. Five guests are feeding on reptiles and other trifles. 

 A servant brings in a young alligator upon a dish. The chairman's 

 knife is ready, and his face anticipatory of impending joys. 



2 Royal Recollections on a tour to Cheltenham, Gloucester, Worcester, 

 and places adjacent, in the year 1788 (;th ed., London, 1788). 



