"No doubt the English settlers carried over, and may have in some cases preserved, the English idiom and accent of their day. Bishop Kearny, as well as his friend Mr. Malone, thought that the most remarkable peculiarity of Irish pronunciation, as in _say_ for _sea_, _tay_ for _tea_, was _the English mode, even down to the reign of Queen Anne_; and there are rhymes in Pope, and more frequently in Dryden, that countenance that opinion. But rhymes cannot be depended upon for minute identity of sound."--Croker's _Notes_, A.D. 1776. If this explanation be adopted, it will account for the examples I have been furnishing, and others which I find even among the harmonious rhymes of Spenser (he might, however, have caught the brogue in Ireland); yet am I free to own that to me popular pronunciation scarcely justifies the committing to paper such loose rhymes as ought to grate on that fineness of ear which is an essential faculty in the true poet; "here or awa'," in England or Ireland, I continue to set them down to "slip-slop composition." It may not be inappropriate to notice, that among Swift's eccentricities, we find a propensity to "out-of-the-way rhymes." In his works are numerous examples of couplets made apparently for no other purpose but to show that no word could baffle him; and the anecdote of his long research for a rhyme for the name of his old enemy Serjent _Betsworth_, and of the curious accident by which he obtained it, is well known; from which we may conclude that he was on the watch for occasions of exhibiting such rhymes as _rakewell_ and _sequel_, _charge ye_ and _clergy_, without supposing him ignorant that he was guilty of "lese majeste" against the laws of correct pronunciation. When I asked MR. BEDE'S decision on a _palpable Cockneyism_ in verse, I did so merely with a view, by a "_tu quoque_ pleasantry," to enliven a discussion, which I hope we may carry on and conclude in that good humour with which I accept his parenthetic hint, that I have made "a bull" of my Pegasus. I beg to submit to him, that, as I read the _Classical Dictionary_, it is from the _heels_ of Pegasus the fount of poetic inspiration is supposed to be derived; and, further, that the _brogue_ is not so _malapropos_ to the _heel_ as he imagines, for in Ireland the _brogue_ is in use as well to cover the _understanding_ as to _tip the tongue_. Could I enjoy the pleasure of MR. BEDE'S company in a stroll over my native mountains, he might find that there are occasions on which he might be glad to put off {484} his London-made shoe, and "to _wear_ the _brogue_, though _speak_ none." A. B. R.