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APIARIAN, CLASSICAL, POETICAL, AND NONDESCRIPT. 



PRELUDE. 



Hail Muse ! &o. —An Invocation to the Muses, both terse and expressive. 

 Possibly not quite original, as I have a dim recollection that a 

 certain ohsoure poet called Byron, whose works are now well nigh 

 forgotten, made use of it. 



Peggy. — A name dear to the writer, as that of the first pony which 

 he ever had of his very own— the gift of a kind Godfather — of 

 a different sex indeed from Pegasus. There is, therefore, some 

 hopes that the breed may have been preserved, but, as far as my 

 experience goes, I may regretfully say, 



Quando ullam iaveniam parem. 



I have, alas, grown stout ; and it requires a strong cob to carry 

 twenty stone, and go lively under it as well. Such a mount fetches 

 a long price, which does not suit a short purse; and such God- 

 fathers, alas ! abieruni ad plures ; their successors give no such gifts 

 to their Godchildren. 



Paenassus Geeen. — Not at all the same sort of place as Paddiugton 

 Green. The latter is now familiarly haunted by our Comic song 

 writers, those most dolorous of all funny men. Parnassus Green 

 stands, from the necessity of rhyme, for Green Parnassus. 



HiPPOCEENE. — The first horse drinking fountain, and produced, moreover, 

 by a stamp of Peggy's hoof. This would be a good subject for a 

 drinking fountain of the present day. I make a present of the idea 

 to any young sculptor who has a commission from one of our 

 merchant princes, and is hard up for a subject. The most ap- 

 proved receipt for developing a poetic temperament was to sleep 

 on Parnassus, and drink of Hippocrene in the morn. Persius has it. 



