Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Tom Hood.
of his irregularity in putting in an appearance , and stopped him one day as he came in behind time as usual , " You arelate , sir , " said the Director , with well-assumed asperity ; it is past ten , sir , past ten . "" Yes , sir , " said Lamb , nervously , with
his usual stammer ; " but I always leave punctually at four . " In 1826 , appeared the first series of " Whims and Oddities , " which had a very good sale , and took so well with the public , that a second edition followed ; and some
time afterwards a second series appeared , dedicated to Sir Walter Scott . This was followed by two volumes of "National Tales , " a series of stories , or rather novelettes , somewhat in the manner of Boccaccio , though wanting of course in
his coarseness ; but they are now utterly out of print . The truth is , like Theodore Hook , he was very clever in many ways , but he could not write stories worth reading . " The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies" a very favourite poem of his own
, , appeared in 1827 , but it did not exactly suit the public taste , and many copies remained unsold on the publisher ' s shelves . Hood afterwards bought up the remainder
of the edition , as he himself said , to save it from the butter shops . This very artistic poem is more appreciated now , as is the "Haunted House , " another of his graver and more ambitious efforts , which has served to stamp him as a poet of no mean order . It shows a
wonderful power of treating of the mysterious and horrible , and it is singularly powerful without beiug revolting . Without doubt , it is one of the finest poems of this gifted writer . In 1829 he left London for Winchmore
Hill , where he took a pretty little cottage situated in a pleasant garden . He was very much attached to the place , and years afterwards , was wont to find a fancied resemblance to it . He had the rheumatic fever very badly
some time afterwards , and went to Brighton , which for many years afterwards , he was in the habit of visiting , and soon got better . Whilst their at breakfast one morning , he offered to give his wife some hints as to buying fish . " Above all things , Jane , " said he , " as they will endeavour to impose upon your inexperience , let nothing induce you
to buy a plaice that has any appearance of red or orange spots , as they are sure signs of an advanced stage of decomposition . " Mrs . Hood , whobelieved implicitly everything her husband told her , eager to
showoff her acquired knowledge , refused to buy some plaice when the fish woman cameround , averring that , of course , the fish were not fresh—when she was met by the assertion that they came out of the water only that morning . But remembering her husband ' s
portrayal of the iniquitous falsehoods told by Brighton fishwomen , she gravely shook her head , and mildly observed , in all the pride of conscious knowledge , "My good woman , it may be as you say ; but I could not think of buying any plaice with
those very unpleasant red spots . " " Lord bless your eyes , mum , " retorted the woman , " who ever seed any without em . " A suppressed giggle on the stairs revealed the perpetrator of the joke ; and off went Tom Hood with a peal of laughter , leaving his
too credulous wife to appease the angry sea nymph as best she could . During one of his visits to Brighton , he made the acquaintance of an old lieutenant in the Coast Guard , from him he learned his solitary song . Only one verse of this curious production has been retained , and it runs something in this fashion : —
" Up jumped the mackerel , With his striped back , Says he , reef in the mainsel and haul on the tack ; For it ' s windy weather ; ' It ' s stormy weather ; And when the wind blows , pipe all hands together ; For , upon my word , it is windy weather . "
Tom Hood , his daughter says , curiously enough , with the most delicate perception of the rhythm and melody of versifying , and the most acute instinct for any jarring syllable or word , and peculiarly happy in the musical cadence , of his own poetry ,
had not the slightest ear for music . He could not sing a tune through correctly , and was rather amused by the defect than otherwise , especially when a phrenologist once told him his organs of time and tune were very deficient .
He used to say on the very few occasions he was got to sing , that he chose this particular song , because if he was out
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Tom Hood.
of his irregularity in putting in an appearance , and stopped him one day as he came in behind time as usual , " You arelate , sir , " said the Director , with well-assumed asperity ; it is past ten , sir , past ten . "" Yes , sir , " said Lamb , nervously , with
his usual stammer ; " but I always leave punctually at four . " In 1826 , appeared the first series of " Whims and Oddities , " which had a very good sale , and took so well with the public , that a second edition followed ; and some
time afterwards a second series appeared , dedicated to Sir Walter Scott . This was followed by two volumes of "National Tales , " a series of stories , or rather novelettes , somewhat in the manner of Boccaccio , though wanting of course in
his coarseness ; but they are now utterly out of print . The truth is , like Theodore Hook , he was very clever in many ways , but he could not write stories worth reading . " The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies" a very favourite poem of his own
, , appeared in 1827 , but it did not exactly suit the public taste , and many copies remained unsold on the publisher ' s shelves . Hood afterwards bought up the remainder
of the edition , as he himself said , to save it from the butter shops . This very artistic poem is more appreciated now , as is the "Haunted House , " another of his graver and more ambitious efforts , which has served to stamp him as a poet of no mean order . It shows a
wonderful power of treating of the mysterious and horrible , and it is singularly powerful without beiug revolting . Without doubt , it is one of the finest poems of this gifted writer . In 1829 he left London for Winchmore
Hill , where he took a pretty little cottage situated in a pleasant garden . He was very much attached to the place , and years afterwards , was wont to find a fancied resemblance to it . He had the rheumatic fever very badly
some time afterwards , and went to Brighton , which for many years afterwards , he was in the habit of visiting , and soon got better . Whilst their at breakfast one morning , he offered to give his wife some hints as to buying fish . " Above all things , Jane , " said he , " as they will endeavour to impose upon your inexperience , let nothing induce you
to buy a plaice that has any appearance of red or orange spots , as they are sure signs of an advanced stage of decomposition . " Mrs . Hood , whobelieved implicitly everything her husband told her , eager to
showoff her acquired knowledge , refused to buy some plaice when the fish woman cameround , averring that , of course , the fish were not fresh—when she was met by the assertion that they came out of the water only that morning . But remembering her husband ' s
portrayal of the iniquitous falsehoods told by Brighton fishwomen , she gravely shook her head , and mildly observed , in all the pride of conscious knowledge , "My good woman , it may be as you say ; but I could not think of buying any plaice with
those very unpleasant red spots . " " Lord bless your eyes , mum , " retorted the woman , " who ever seed any without em . " A suppressed giggle on the stairs revealed the perpetrator of the joke ; and off went Tom Hood with a peal of laughter , leaving his
too credulous wife to appease the angry sea nymph as best she could . During one of his visits to Brighton , he made the acquaintance of an old lieutenant in the Coast Guard , from him he learned his solitary song . Only one verse of this curious production has been retained , and it runs something in this fashion : —
" Up jumped the mackerel , With his striped back , Says he , reef in the mainsel and haul on the tack ; For it ' s windy weather ; ' It ' s stormy weather ; And when the wind blows , pipe all hands together ; For , upon my word , it is windy weather . "
Tom Hood , his daughter says , curiously enough , with the most delicate perception of the rhythm and melody of versifying , and the most acute instinct for any jarring syllable or word , and peculiarly happy in the musical cadence , of his own poetry ,
had not the slightest ear for music . He could not sing a tune through correctly , and was rather amused by the defect than otherwise , especially when a phrenologist once told him his organs of time and tune were very deficient .
He used to say on the very few occasions he was got to sing , that he chose this particular song , because if he was out