624 
In Ids “ prefatory salutation ” he thus addresses his reader 
(p. 3):- . 
“ All hail ! esteem’d aquatic friend, 
Since both our aims are for one end ; 
To tell those that’s not seen much water, 
In da}’’s of yore what was the matter ; 
Announce to th’ public we are penman. 
By narrating the lives of Fen-men.” 
Of the place of his birth he speaks as follows : — 
“ Kynine God knows. 
Where no corn grows. 
Nothing but a little hay, 
And the water comes. 
And takes it all away. 
Where Ducks by scores travers’d the Fens, 
Coots, Didappers, Bails, Water-hens, 
Combin’d with eggs, to change our pot. 
Two furlongs circle round the spot.* 
Fowl, fish, all kinds the table grac’d, 
All caught within the self same space ; 
As time revolv’d, in season fed, 
The surplus found us salt and bread ; 
Your humble servant, now your penman. 
Liv’d thus a simple, full-bred Fen-man.” 
With regard to his imperfect education, he begs the reader’s 
indulgence, the first twenty years of his life having been passed 
five miles from church or school, amid conversation of the “ lowest, 
vulgar kind,” with only six months’ schooling : 
“ Pray sirs, consider, had you been 
Bred where whole winters nothing’s seen 
But naked floods for miles and miles. 
Except a boat the eye beguiles ; 
Or Coots, in clouds, by Buzzards teaz’d. 
Your ear with seeming thunder seiz’d 
From rais’d decoy, — there Ducks on flight. 
By tens of thousands darken light ; 
# # # # 
Who liv’d for months on stage of planks, 
’Midst Captain Flood’s most swelling pranks. 
Five miles from any food to have. 
Yea often risk’d a watery grave.” 
* Beferring to Willow Booth, the place of his birth. Hall appends 
the following note:— “Then an island of but few perches. The author 
was the last person living who was born upon it.” 
