Science in the 19th Century Periodical

The Comic Annual [1st] [2nd]

Introductory Essay
Volume [8]  (1837)
Comic Annual,  8 (1837), v–xiv.

Preface

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Preface, Drollery

Subjects:

Politics, Homeopathy, Temperance, Medical Practitioners, Pharmaceuticals


    Hood laments the impossibility of making topical political comment whilst living abroad: 'I might have been insisting on a fairer mode of Registration—when the whole system had been Rumford Thompson, Sir Benjamin, Count von Rumford (1753–1814) ODNB
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ized and the Books ordered to be kept on the principle of Cobbett's Register Cobbett's Annual Register (1802–03) Cobbett's Weekly Political Register (or Cobbett's Political Register) (1804–36) Waterloo Directory
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' (vii). 'The [Thomas Hood], 'Ode to Doctor Hahnemann, the Homœopathist', Comic Annual, 8 (1837), 89–96 is recommended, with infinitesimal respect, to the consideration of those Members of the Faculty who, adopting the doctrine of minute doses, prescribe for their patients on Temperance Principles, and have their Dispensary in Pump Court'. Declares that 'the incidents of the , [Thomas Hood], 'The Fatal Bath', Comic Annual, 8 (1837), 1–21 stand [...] on the solid legs of fact'. (x)



Comic Annual,  8 (1837), 1–21.

The Fatal Bath

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Short Fiction, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Expertise, Astronomy, Meteorology, Physics, Medical Treatment


    Medical men seldom agree about their theories: 'the differences of doctors have, indeed, passed into a proverb' (1). However, almost all agree in advising bathing with an empty stomach: 'The famous Doctor Krankengraber [i.e. 'sick-bury'], in his most famous book, called "Immersion deeply Considered", forbids, under all kinds of corporeal pains and penalties, the use of the cold bath, after the mid-day meal' (2). The narrator, however, sets himself up against this high authority and offers the opposite advice. He gives an account of his encounter with 'Christiana F——', his one waltz with whom left his head forever spinning like 'the harmonious everlasting revolutions of the planets' (3). It was like the 'mysterious influence' of the whirlwind in Coblentz in May 1835, which left all those present waltzing. Seeing her dance with another man, the narrator observes: 'Possibly I should have ended, like certain rotary fireworks, with an explosion,—at all events I should have flown off to my quarters, when a few gracious words [...] converted the centrifugal into a centripetal impulse' (7). Having been invited to dine, he recalls, 'how I spun!—or else I had become conscious of the earth's revolution!' (8). Taking a swim on the way to the dinner engagement, he is bitten by leeches, and cannot remove them. He wishes that he had been 'affected with Hydrophobia, ere that fatal bath' (12). The leeches having finally fallen off, the narrator arrives late at the chateau. During the ball he finds dancing difficult, and fancies that he feels 'the circulation in every vein and artery, becoming more and more rapid from such gentle exercise' (16). His love ultimately dances with, and marries another. Thus it is through the advice of Dr Krankengraber that he loses his love, for she thought his constant glances at his legs a sign of vanity. The illustration 'A Finished Drawing' (facing 12) depicts a pained man running from a house with the name 'Cartwright Cartwright, Samuel (1789–1864) ODNB
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' on the door, clutching a handkerchief to his mouth; the maidservant at the door is smiling, the man in a top-hat at the window has a scarf wrapped round his jaw.


See also:

[Thomas Hood], 'Preface', Comic Annual, 8 (1837), v–xiv


Comic Annual,  8 (1837), 22–34.

The Blue Boar

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Cruelty, Menageries, Politics


    The narrator reports having seen many rabid men stirred by raving demagogues, but none fixed on a specific object, such as liberating 'the beasts from Cross's Cross's Menagerie, King's Mews, Charing Cross
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'; instead they were all loyal 'to one design—a battle royal' (25).



Comic Annual,  8 (1837), 35–48.

A Letter from an Absentee

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Introduction, Drollery; Letter, Spoof

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [4]

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Subjects:

Menageries, Hunting, Microscopy, Natural History, Naturalists, Palaeontology, Extinction, Physiology

People mentioned:

Llewellyn L Lloyd Lloyd, Llewellyn L (1792–1876) WBI
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    The fictional hero of the narrative, Charles De La Motte, fulfils a long-standing ambition to kill an elk. In a spoof letter to his friend, Willman Playfair, he muses that, had he failed, he would have been ridiculed: 'You remember how we roasted poor Hawkins, who, led by an ambition with which I can sympathise, when Cross Cross, Edward (1774?–1854) ODNB
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was obliged to order military execution on Chuny [an elephant in the Exeter Exchange Royal Menagerie Exeter Exchange—Royal Menagerie
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], paid his two guineas for a shot at the elephant, and missed?'. De La Motte places himself in the company of luminaries who have figuratively endeavoured to shoot their elk—to bring down 'some object bigger than ever we brought down before'. (39) He refers his friend to an excellent article in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Edinburgh Monthly Magazine (1817) Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1817–1900+) Waterloo Directory
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on the 'Shooter's Progress' toward bagging ever larger game. He recalls an angling friend with no interest in looking at 'Carpenter's Carpenter, Philip (d. 1833) Turner 1989
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Solar Microscope', since he 'did not care to learn that there are swimming things in water too small to rise at a midge or to take a mite', having set his sights on catching 'the American Sea-Serpent'. (40) Audubon 'has given a thrilling description of his ecstasy on knocking down a Golden Eagle with his rifle', but is not content: 'It is well known that on the completion of his truly splendid Ornithological Work Audubon, John James 1827–38. The Birds of America, 4 vols, London: privately published
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, he intends an oriental voyage on the track of Sinbad, half believing, and three quarters hoping, that the existence of that stupendous bird, the Roc, is not a fable' (42). De La Motte recalls a friend who, tired of putting out rabbits, wished to 'ferret the Thames Tunnel Thames Tunnel
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with a crocodile, and bolt Hippopotami!' (43). He refers to Washington Irving Irving, Washington ('Geoffrey Crayon') (1783–1859) CBD
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'quietly exulting of killing his buffalo', and reports that he is now searching for an elk. He imagines them both in the depths of the American forests ,'hoping in some hitherto untrodden recess to find living specimens of those surpassing monsters whereof we have as yet seen only the organic remains'. Neither of them would be above shooting a mammoth or a megatherium, were they to find one. De La Motte has been taken by a kind friend to Lewes, 'to see the museum Brighton. Gideon A Mantell's museum
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of Mr. Gideon Mantell Mantell, Gideon Algernon (1790–1852) DSB
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, so rich in fossil relics, including the giant Iguanadon, discovered in Tilgate forest'. (44) He felt envious of those 'early Nimrods' who had been able to hunt such beasts; he thought it 'a pity that they did not preserve their game'. One of those present sympathized with him, namely Charles Waterton Waterton, Charles (1782–1865) DSB
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, who at the sight of the iguanadon exclaimed: 'the alligator I broke in, and rode upon, was a dwarf to this!' (45) In a postscript, De La Motte announces his departure with an Indian guide in search of 'some monstrous beast', perhaps a megatherium (48). The illustration captioned 'Animal Spirits' (facing 38) depicts a kneeling man in an attitude of prayer, but with his hair standing on end, looking around him at apparitions of domestic animals. The illustration captioned 'Animals—after Landseer Landseer, Sir Edwin Henry (1802–73) ODNB
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' (facing 41) depicts a man (apparently with a crystal ball for a face) being pursued by various animals, including a dog, a monkey, and a lion. The illustration captioned 'A Magnum Bonum' (facing 44) depicts hounds sniffing around a giant leg bone, protruding from the ground rather like a tree stump, while a huntsman looks on. The illustration captioned 'Phœnix Domesticus' (48) depicts a fire out of which tongs, cauldron, bellows and shovel are protruding so as to appear bird-like.



Comic Annual,  8 (1837), 57–63.

An Intercepted Dispatch

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Introduction, Drollery; Letter, Reportage, Spoof

Subjects:

Anatomy


    Depracating the 'notorious rudeness of what is called Civil war', Hood continues: 'Intestinal strife, as at present waged, is a frightful anomaly. It runs counter to every association—moral or anatomical' (57).



Comic Annual,  8 (1837), 81–88.

Hitchin Hall

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Introduction, Drollery; Letter, Spoof

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [4]

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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/ J Scott Scott, John (fl. 1836–39) Engen 1985, CA1/7/2, CA1/10/8
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Subjects:

Entomology, Societies, Horticulture, Natural History


    Hood introduces this spoof correspondence claiming that 'Hitchin Hall will probably remind the reader of an Insect Hospital, at Surat, described by Lieutenant Burnes Burnes, Sir Alexander (1805–41) ODNB
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; it was evidently a House, whose members would have voted unanimously for the admission of a few Destructives' (82). From the correspondence it transpires that Hitchin Hall was formerly 'in the occupation of the Hitchin Entomological Society; and the secretary, who was very curious in keeping and breeding all sorts of insects, resided on the premises' (88). The new tenants are plagued with insects, and with newts that come to feed on them; even the garden is alive with insects, and lighting the stoves in the hothouses hatches out swarms of them. The illustration captioned 'What Are You Hat!' (81) depicts a well-dressed man trampling flowers as he attempts to swat a flying insect with his hat, observed by a gardener. The illustration captioned 'Jessie's Jesse, Edward (1780–1868) ODNB
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Gleanings in Natural History' Jesse, Edward 1832. Gleanings in Natural History, with Local Recollections: To which are Added Maxims and Hints for an Angler, London: John Murray
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(facing 84) depicts a woman on a stool looking through the contents of her sack, which include several bones and what appears to be a dead cat. The illustration captioned 'It's a Mere Flea-Bite' (facing 87) depicts a man jumping out of his chair as he is bitten on the cheek by an insect almost half his height. The illustration captioned 'Hen-Tomology' (88) depicts a hen about to devour an insect.



Comic Annual,  8 (1837), 89–96.

Ode to Doctor Hahnemann Hahnemann, Christian Friedrich Samuel (1755–1843) DSB
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, the Homœopathist

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Poetry, Satire

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [3]

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Subjects:

Homeopathy, Medical Treatment, Pharmaceuticals, Medical Practitioners, Charlatanry, Epistemology, Morality, Religion, Status, Magic, Quackery, Natural History, Taxonomy


    The poem addresses Hahnemann as the 'Founder of a new system economic, / To druggists anything but comic; / Fram'd the whole race of Ollapods to fret, / At profits, like thy doses, very small / To put all Doctor's Boys in evil case, / Thrown out of bread, of physic, and of place,— / And show us old Apothecaries' Hall Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London—Apothecaries' Hall
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"To Let" (89–90). Hahnemann's principle of treatment is described, and various ludicrous applications are suggested and questioned. Hood reflects on his own facetiousness: 'Perchance, from some dull eye the hopeless tear / Hath gush'd, with my light levity at schism / To mourn some Martyr of Empiricism!'. He dares to prescribe a rule for Hahnemann, and all his tribe, suggesting that 'Man's Health' is 'not for minds profane, / or hands, to tamper with in practice vain'. It is a 'heavenly gift [...] To be approach'd and touch'd with serious fear, / By hands made pure, and hearts of faith severe, / Ev'n as the Priesthood of the ONE divine'. (94) However, 'each fellow with a suit of black, / And, strange to fame, / with a diploma'd name, / That carries two more letters pick-a-back, / With cane, and snuffbox, powder'd wig, and block, / Invents his dose, as if it were a chrism, / And dares to treat our wondrous mechanism, / Familiar as the works of old Dutch clock'. Hood suggests that Hahnemann drown his book 'Like Prospero's beneath the briny sea, / For spells of magic have all gone to sleep!'. He should leave no 'decillionth fragment' of his works 'To help the interests of quacking Burkes Burke, William (1792–1829) ODNB
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'. (95) The illustration 'The Quinary System' (89) depicts five men playing ball, apparently in a prison yard. The illustration 'The Best Cure for a Cold' (facing 90) depicts a seaman sitting on a chair with both his wooden legs in a tub of hot water. The illustration 'Bell on the Hand Bell, Charles 1833. The Hand: Its Mechanism and Vital Endowments as Evincing Design, London: Richard Phillips
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' (96) depicts a hand with a bell resting upon it.


See also:

[Thomas Hood], 'Preface', Comic Annual, 8 (1837), v–xiv


Comic Annual,  8 (1837), 97–121.

Sketches on the Road

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Regular Feature, Short Fiction, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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[1] The Morning Call

Subjects:

Invention, Patents, Discovery, Death, Dissection, Crime


    The narrator reflects: 'Blessed be the man, says Sancho Panza, who first invented sleep: and blessed be heaven that he did not take out a patent, and keep his discovery to himself' (98). The illustration captioned 'You've Waked me too Soon, / I Must Slumber Again' (102) depicts a figure in night-cap and night-gown sitting up, stretching, and yawning in a coffin which has just been disinterred by a resurrectionist from a grave marked 'Watts Watts, Isaac (1674–1748) ODNB
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'.



[3] The Fresh Horse

Subjects:

Archaeology, Engineers


    The narrator observes: 'Stone Henge has always been a mystery to Antiquarians, and a puzzle to mechanics and engineers to conceive how such huge masses of stone were transported, and erected, in their celebrated locality' (111).




Comic Annual,  8 (1837), 122–31.

The Dead Robbery

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [2]

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Subjects:

Narcotics, Death, Dissection, Crime, Medical Practitioners, Narcotics, Political Economy

Publications cited:

Burton 1621 [Burton, Robert] 1621. The Anatomy of Melancholy: What it is. With all the Kindes, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes, and Severall Cures of it. In Three Maine Partitions with their Severall Sections, Members, and Subsections. Philosophically, Medicinally, Historically, Opened and Cut up. By Democritus Junior. With a Satyricall Preface, Conducing to the Following Discourse, Oxford: H. Cripps
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    Unlucky in love and fortune, Peter Bunce feigns toothache, and 'From twenty divers druggists' shops / He begg'd enough of laudanum by drops / T' effect the fatal purpose that he had'. He is buried a pauper, thus presenting a good opportunity for body-snatchers: 'Down came a fellow with a sack and spade, / Accustom'd many years to drive a trade / With that Anatomy more Melancholy / Than Burton Burton, Robert (1577–1640) ODNB
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's!'. (123) On opening the coffin, the body-snatcher (Mike Mahoney) finds that the laudanum has only put Bunce into a trance, from which he wakes. Bunce discusses Mahoney's trade with him, and is astonished to learn that a body is worth ten pounds. He promptly kills Mahoney, and sells his body to Dr Oddy. He then kills Dr Oddy, and sells his body to Dr Case, before killing Dr Case and selling his body to another doctor, whom he then dispatches. 'Bunce plotted—such high flights ambition takes,—/ to treat the Faculty like ducks and drakes, / And sell them all ere they could utter "Quack!"' (129). Thus trading on into the morning, Bunce looks to sell his last corpse. However, he is directed to a doctor at law ('a doctor's reckon'd / A rare Top-Sawyer, let who will come second'), who on being offered a corpse, declares 'Death! Devil! d—n! / Confound the vagabond, he thinks I am / A rhubarb-and-magnesia Doctor!' (130). Bunce flees and lives 'securely till fourscore / From never troubling Doctors any more!' (131). The illustration captioned 'A Pauper in High Relief' (facing 128) depicts a statue of a very portly man with a placard around his neck and with his hat in a begging pose; the plinth reads 'Old Poor Law'. The illustration captioned 'Appropriation Clause' (131) depicts a man dropping his cutlery in fright as two cats leap up at the table, carrying off his dinner (a turtle) in their claws.



Comic Annual,  8 (1837), 140–48.

Agricultural Distress

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [2]

Illustrators:

J Scott Scott, John (fl. 1836–39) Engen 1985, CA1/7/2, CA1/10/8
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/ T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Subjects:

Education, Agriculture, Politics, Political Economy


    A group of 'bumpkins' are discussing the question 'What's Agricultural Distress?' (140). Colin observes of the others: 'You never cares to look, / Like me, in any larned book' (146). He proceeds to explain that 'agriculture' only means 'farming', and that 'Distress is want, and pain, and grief, / And sickness,—things as want relief; / Thirst, hunger, age, and cold severe; / In short, ax any overseer' (147). Since there is no such distress in the growing of crops and the raising of stock, he concludes that 'agricultural distress' must mean 'the Farming of the Poor', to which all agree (148). The illustration captioned 'Political Economy' (facing 147) depicts a group of four men crowding around a shop window to read a newspaper. The illustration captioned 'Who Says There is Not a Surplus?' (148) depicts an Anglican cleric being dressed in a surplice.



Comic Annual,  8 (1837), 153–64.

Domestic Poems

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Introduction, Drollery; Poetry, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Subjects:

Astronomy, Medical Practitioners, Obstetrics, Race


    The illustration captioned 'Total Eclipse of the Son' (facing 162) depicts an aghast midwife presenting a black baby to an equally aghast white father.



Comic Annual,  8 (1837), 165–68.

John Jones. A Pathetic Ballad

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Ballad, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

T Hood Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Subjects:

Engineers, Education, Railways, Government


    John Jones was a builder's clerk 'Before his head was engine-turn'd / To be an engineer!'. He discovered that 'iron roads / were quite the public tale', but his schemes all ended ill because he tried to make 'short cuts, / when cut [i.e. drunk] with something short [i.e. spirits]'. (165) The railway he plans careers from right to left, and no-one will take it up. It is ridiculed in the public press, but Jones persists in his plan until he ends in debt. Finally he hangs himself, leaving a message on the wall: 'I've got my line at last!' (168). The illustration 'Parliament Rejects my Line' (facing 167) depicts a drunken man clutching a bill marked 'Railroad'; a line marks his careering path from the door of a public house, and the signpost next to him points toward 'Rye'.



Comic Annual,  8 (1837), 169–75.

Ode to Messrs. Green Green, Charles (1785–1870) ODNB
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, Hollond Hollond, Robert (1808–77) ODNB
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, and Monck Mason Mason, Thomas Monck (1803–89) WBI
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, on their Late Balloon Expedition

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[Thomas Hood] Hood, Thomas (1799–1845) ODNB
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Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Aeronautics, Exploration, Authorship, Astronomy, Heroism

People mentioned:

Frederick Gye Gye, Frederick, the elder (1781–1869) ODNB
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    The ode lauds the aeronauts [who have flown from Vauxhall Gardens Royal Gardens, Vauxhall
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in London over the English Channel to German territory] using superlative but jocular imagery, referring to them as 'Volatile spirits! Light mercurial humours!'. The poet requests: 'O give us soon your sky adventures truly, / With full particulars, correcting duly / All flying rumours!', and speculates drolly on the adventures of the aeronauts. (170) He enquires whether any were air-sick: 'P'rhaps Monck Mason / Was forc'd to have an air-pump in a bason?'. He speculates about their amusements in the balloon: 'did you listen, the first mortal ears / That ever drank the music of the spheres?'. (172) Perhaps they kept watch all night 'Marking the planets bright, / Like three more Airys Airy, Sir George Biddell (1801–92) DSB ODNB
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, studying astronomy' (174). The poet considers that it was well-planned that they came down in German territory: 'For, if I read the prophesy aright, / You'll have the Eagle-Order for your flight, / And all be Von'd, because of your descent! (175).