Wednesday’s Piece

If I were a cassowary
On the plains of Timbuktu,
I would eat a missionary,
Cassock, band, and hymn-book too.
(Bishop Samuel Wilberforce, 1805 – 1873)

John Lentell
11th December, 1970

(c) Royal Academy of Arts; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation
(c) Royal Academy of Arts; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation

Sunday’s Piece

Information, free from interest or prejudice, free from the vanity of the writer or the influence of a government, is as necessary to the human mind as pure air and water to the human body.
The Times, London, 21 September 1970
(William Rees-Mogg, 1928 – 2012)

John Lentell
8th December, 1970

william-rees-mogg-1967

Friday’s Piece

What thing is love? – for (well I wot) love is a thing,
It is a prick, it is a sting,
it is a pretty, pretty thing;
It is a fire, it is a coal
Whose flame creeps in at every hole!
(George Peele, 1556 – 1596)

John Lentell
6th December, 1970

George Peele

Wednesday’s Piece

A wonderful bird is the pelican,
His bill will hold more than his belican,
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week,
But I’m damned if I see how the helican.

(Dixon Lanier Merritt, 1879–1972)

John Lentell
5th December, 1970

Dixon_Lanier_Merritt01

Saturday’s Piece

“Have you heard of the terrible family They,

And the dreadful venomous things They say?

Why, half of the gossip under the sun,

If you trace it back, you will find begun

In that wretched House of They.”

(Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 1850 – 1919)

John Lentell

1st December, 1970

ella wheeler wilcox