From the fields and gardens to the Dairy. In the Vaccine nomenclature
we pass over the numerals and the letters of the Alphabet. Would you
have more endearing appellations than Curly, Curl-pate, Pretty,
Browny, Cot Lass, Lovely Lass (a name peradventure imposed by that
person famous in the proverb, as the old Woman who kissed her
Cow)—more promising than Bee, Earnest, Early, Standfast, Fill-bouk,
Fillpan,—more romantic than Rose, Rosely, Rosebud, Roseberry,
Rosamond, Rosella, Rosalina, Furba, Firbrella, Firbrina, more rural
than Rurorea.
Then for Bulls,—was there not the Bull Shakespeare, by Shakespeare off
young Nell, who was sold in the year 1793 for £400., with a condition
that the seller should have the privilege every year of introducing
two Cows to the said Shakespeare. And was there not the Bull Comet who
was sold for 1000 guineas. I say nothing of Alderman Bull, nor of John
Bull, nor of the remarkable Irish Breed.
For horses I content myself with remembering the never to be forgotten
Pot-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-os, sometimes written Pot8os. Whose was the proudest
feeling of exultation, his who devised this numerico-literal piece of
wit,—or that of Archimedes when he exclaimed _Εὑρηκα_? And while
touching the Arithmographic mode of writing let us not forget the
Frenchman who by the union of a pun and a hieroglyph described his
Sovereign's style thus—Louis with ten-oysters in a row after the name.
As for the scientific names of Plants,—if Apollo had not lost all
power he would have elongated the ears of Tournefort and Linnæus, and
all their followers, as deservedly as he did those of Midas.
Of the Knights or Horsemen, Greeks and Trojans, Rustics and Townsmen
among—Butterflies,—and the Gods, Goddesses, Muses and Graces, Heroes,
Worthies and Unworthies, who feed in their grub state upon lettuces
and cabbages, sleep through their aurelian term of existence, and
finally obtain a name in the naturalist's nomenclature, and perhaps a
local habitation in his Cabinet with a pin through their bodies, I say
nothing, farther than to state why one tribe of them is denominated
Trojans. Be it known then in the words of a distinguished
Entomologist, that “this tribe has been dedicated by Entomologists to
the memory of the more distinguished worthies of the Trojan race, and
above others to preserve, the memory of those heroes whose exploits in
the defence of that rich and potent station of the ancient world, the
town of Troy, have been commemorated in the Iliad by the immortal
Homer.” Lest Homer therefore and all the works derived from him should
perish from remembrance the Entomologists have very considerately
devised this means for preserving the memory of Hector.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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