"Thank you," said Parkinson, after I had read him an entire chapter on the rights of persons, expounding as I went along. "I see you understand the subject, and are a respectable young man--which I rather doubted at first from your countenance, which shows the folly of taking against a person for the cast of his face or the glance of his eye. Now, I'll maintain that you are a respectable young man, whoever says to the contrary; and that some day or other you will be an honour to your profession and a credit to your friends. I like chapter and verse when I ask a question, and you have given me both; you shall never want my good word; meanwhile, if there is anything that I can oblige you in--" "There is, Mr. Parkinson, there is." "Well, what is it?" "It has just occurred to me that you could give me a hint or two at versification. I have just commenced, but I find it no easy matter, the rhymes are particularly perplexing." "Are you quite serious?" "Quite so; and to convince you, here is an ode of Ab Gwilym which I am translating, but I can get no farther than the first verse." "Why, that was just my case when I first began," said Parkinson. "I think I have been tolerably successful in the first verse, and that I have not only gotten the sense of the author, but that alliteration, which, as you may perhaps be aware, is one of the most peculiar features of Welsh poetry. In the ode to which I allude the poet complains of the barbarity of his mistress, Morfydd, and what an unthankful task it is to be the poet of a beauty so proud and disdainful, which sentiment I have partly rendered thus:-- _Mine is a task by no means merry_, in which you observe that the first word of the line and the last two commence with the same letter, according to the principle of Welsh prosody. But now cometh the difficulty. What is the rhyme for _merry_?" "_Londonderry_," said the poet without hesitation, "as you will see by the poem which I addressed to Mr. C., the celebrated Whig agriculturist, on its being reported that the king was about to pay him a visit:-- _But if in our town he would wish to be merry_ _Pray don't let him bring with him Lord Londonderry_, which two lines procured me the best friend I ever had in my life." "They are certainly fine lines," I observed, "and I am not at all surprised that the agriculturist was pleased with them; but I am afraid that I cannot turn to much account the hint which they convey. How can I possibly introduce Londonderry into my second line?" "I see no difficulty," said Parkinson; "just add:-- _I sing proud Mary of Londonderry_ to your first line, and I do not see what objection could be made to the couplet, as they call it." "No farther," said I, "than that she was not of Londonderry, which was not even built at the time she lived." "Well, have your own way," said Parkinson; "I see that you have not had the benefit of a classical education." "What makes you think so?"