From Geoffrey the cat to Doctor Death
(some pictures are clickable)

For I will consider my Cat Jeoffrey
For he is the servant of the Living God duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.
For is this done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant
quickness.
. . .

For if he meets another cat he will kiss her in kindness.
For when he takes his prey he plays with it to give it chance.
For one mouse in seven escapes by his dallying . . .

For the English cats are the best in Europe.
…

For there is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest.
For there is nothing brisker than his life when in motion.
…
Christopher Smart (1722-1771)

For a translation, try:

Körmänniskor känner väl igen det här diktcitatet från Benjamin Brittens Rejoice in the Lamb. (Jag har den på CD med Stephen Cleobury och King’s College, Argo 433 215-2, tillsammans med bl.a. A Ceremony of Carols, och den ges rätt flitigt här i Sverige.) Britten hade en otrolig näsa för oförtjänt bortglömda pärlor i den engelska poesin. Hela Kit Smarts diktning låg mer eller mindre avglömd i 150 år efter hans död. Jubilate Agno (Rejoice in the Lamb) skrevs mellan 1758 or 1763, medan Smart var intagen på ett privat dårhus i Bethnal Green, London. (Han slutade sina dagar i ett gäldenärsfängelse.)

His alleged madness consisted in a compulsion to pray on the street. The really great and good Doctor Johnson (of Dictionary and Boswell fame) saw little harm in that: "Madness," he said, "frequently discovers itself merely by unnecessary deviation from the usual modes of the world. My poor friend Smart shewed the disturbance of his mind by falling upon his knees, and saying his prayers in the street, or in any other unusual place. Now although, rationally speaking, it is greater madness not to pray at all, than to pray as Smart did, I am afraid there are so many who do not pray, that their understanding is not called in question." And again: "I did not think he ought to be shut up.. He insisted on people praying with him; and I’d as lief pray with Kit Smart as any one else. Another charge was, that he did not love clean linen; and I have no passion for it."

Talking of linen, it was unkindly said of Thomas Gray (the Elegy man) that he walked as if he had fouled his and looked as if he could smell it. He was a fellow of Peterhouse, the oldest of the Cambridge colleges, where the students bated him like anything until one night they gathered beneath his first floor window, shouting "Fire!" Gray literally fell for it, landing in a horse trough, whereupon, shaking the water of Peterhouse from off his feet, he took refuge across the road in Pembroke – my college, Kit Smart’s as well (he was an outstanding classicist), and the second oldest.

For I will consider my lover, who shall remain nameless.
For at the age of 49 he can make the noise of five different kinds of lorry changing gear on a hill.
For he sometimes does this on the stairs at his place of work.
For he is embarrassed when people overhear him.
For he can also imitate at least three different kinds of train.
For these include the London tube train, the team engine, and the Southern Rail electric.
For he supports Tottenham Hotspurs with joyful and unswerving devotion.
For he abhors Arsenal, whose supporters and uncivilized and rough.
For he explains that Spurs are magic, whereas Arsenal are boring and defensive.

Wendy Cope, My Lover, in Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis, 1986 (ISBN 0-571-13747-4)

For an update on Wendy Cope, visit: http://martinblyth.co.uk/WendyCope.htm

Word Gems
Quotes from Dr Johnson, Henry Ford and all the best people. American-portentous.

The Victorian web
Mainly literary history. Trollope, Hardy .. you name it. This’ll keep you busy for a lifetime! 

The Bastuli Mystery Library
(A vastly appetising survey of whodunits. Italian site with choice of languages – Italian or English.) 

Fet Mats och Richard Wagner 

Om föregående gav mersmak, är upphovsmannens hemsida minst lika bra...

“Rudyard Kipling is one of the major literary figures influencing the flowering of science fiction in the 20th century.” What?! Well, have a look and see what you think.

http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/exper/kcramer/anth/Night.html

Interspecies communication
 

 The horsemen were at the top of the farmworkers’ hierarchy; to become head horseman (or lord, as he was called in East Anglia) was to reach the summit. When harnessed and ready for the field, the teams left the yard and returned in strict order of precedence. …

  The horsemen were rightly proud of their skill in handling the huge horses, and sometimes intimated that their skill was due to supernatural powers. The two most spectacular methods of horse control were ‘jading’ and ‘drawing’. Jading was the art of bringing a horse to an abrupt stop and causing it to refuse to move for anyone but its master. Drawing .. was a method of getting horses to come to you, or, as it was put in an old horseman’s notebook, ‘catching wild colts and vicious horses on any field or common’. …

  In jading, the horseman surreptitiously rubbed some obnoxious-smelling preparation on the horse’s chest or front legs, or even dropped some on the ground in front of it, to make it refuse to go forward. The horse could be moved only when the horseman, on pretence, perhaps, of examining the horse’s legs, rubbed on a different mixture, to counteract and neutralize the smell; or he might rub vinegar on the horse’s nostrils to overpower any other smells. Horsemen also had a variety of secret recipes for making the coats of their team shine. ..

  The knowledge of these recipes and other information on horse management was a closely guarded secret. One way to gain access to it was to become an initiate of the horsemen’s secret society, known in different parts of the country as the ‘Horseman’s Word’, the ‘Whisperers’ and the ‘Toad Men’. Specific practices varied but the overall picture seems to have been of a cross between a trade union and an occult society, with a bit of Freemasonry thrown in.

 [In the north-east of Scotland] a young horseman, when deemed ready, was blindfolded and taken from his bed in the dead of night and led to some isolated barn where the initiation ceremony would take place. On arrival, he gave the horseman’s knock – three measured raps – pawed the door three times, and whinnied like a horse.

 As I glide out on a moonlight night
To view you meetings early
I came here to be tried
And I hope you’ll try me fairly. 

On admittance, he swore an oath never to reveal what he was about to be taught.

There’s to the horse with the three white legs
The chestnut tail and mane
There’s to the man that caught him
His name was Tubal Cain. 

‘How many links are there in the horseman’s chain?’

‘Seven. The horse,. the man, the whip, the hand, the lass, the glass, the liberty.’

 To seal the oath he was forced to shake hands with the Devil, represented by an older horseman under a goatskin.

 
I doubt young man you’re a stranger here
And that I’ll not deny
But before you leave this moonlight night
Your courage we will try.

 Then he was given the horseman’s grip and word.
 

There’s to them that brought me here
There’s to them and no other
There’s to them that brought me here
And changed my name from friend to brother.

 
The proceedings then deteriorated into an evening of bawdy songs and the drinking of malt whisky, which continued till the cold light of dawn reminded those present of their responsibilities. 

Disclaimer: I have tried, unsuccessfully, to contact the editor and publishers for permission to reproduce the above extract.