No More Learning

I was on my way from London to Guildford, in a railway carriage,
containing, besides myself, one passenger, an elderly gentleman: presently,
however, two ladies entered, accompanied by two little boys. These, who had
just had a copy of the "Book of Nonsense" given them, were loud in their
delight, and by degrees infected the whole party with their mirth.

"How grateful," said the old gentleman to the two ladies, "all children,
and parents too, ought to be to the statesman who has given his time to
composing that charming book! "

(The ladies looked puzzled, as indeed was I, the author. )

"Do you not know who is the writer of it? " asked the gentleman.

"The name is 'Edward Lear,'" said one of the ladies.

"Ah! " said the first speaker, "so it is printed; but that is only a whim of
the real author, the Earl of Derby. 'Edward' is his Christian name, and, as
you may see, LEAR is only EARL transposed. "

"But," said the lady, doubtingly, "here is a dedication to the
great-grandchildren, grand-nephews, and grand-nieces of Edward, thirteenth
Earl of Derby, by the author, Edward Lear. "

"That," replied the other, "is simply a piece of mystification; I am in a
position to know that the whole book was composed and illustrated by Lord
Derby himself. In fact, there is no such a person at all as Edward Lear. "

"Yet," said the other lady, "some friends of mine tell me they know Mr.
Lear.
"

"Quite a mistake! completely a mistake! " said the old gentleman, becoming
rather angry at the contradiction; "I am well aware of what I am saying: I
can inform you, no such a person as 'Edward Lear' exists! "

Hitherto I had kept silence; but as my hat was, as well as my handkerchief
and stick, largely marked inside with my name, and as I happened to have in
my pocket several letters addressed to me, the temptation was too great to
resist; so, flashing all these articles at once on my would-be
extinguisher's attention, I speedily reduced him to silence.

The second volume of Nonsense, commencing with the verses, "The Owl and the
Pussy-Cat," was written at different times, and for different sets of
children: the whole being collected in the course of last year, were then
illustrated, and published in a single volume, by Mr. R. J. Bush, of 32
Charing Cross.

The contents of the third or present volume were made also at different
intervals in the last two years.

Long years ago, in days when much of my time was passed in a country house,
where children and mirth abounded, the lines beginning, "There was an old
man of Tobago," were suggested to me by a valued friend, as a form of verse
lending itself to limitless variety for rhymes and pictures; and
thenceforth the greater part of the original drawings and verses for the
first "Book of Nonsense" were struck off with a pen, no assistance ever
having been given me in any way but that of uproarious delight and welcome
at the appearance of every new absurdity.

Most of these Drawings and Rhymes were transferred to lithographic stones
in the year 1846, and were then first published by Mr. Thomas McLean, of
the Haymarket. But that edition having been soon exhausted, and the call
for the "Book of Nonsense" continuing, I added a considerable number of
subjects to those previously-published, and having caused the whole to be
carefully reproduced in woodcuts by Messrs. Dalzell, I disposed of the
copyright to Messrs. Routledge and Warne, by whom the volume was published
in 1843.
EDWARD LEAR.