Explore "The Parish Pump (a Ballade). (Rhymes for the Times)" by Harry Graham on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
['The parish pump is the best friend of the teacher of history, / and the man who, on the basis of Imperialism, sneers at the / parish pump, does not know what he is talking about. ' -- Canon / MASTERMAN.]
The pedagogue his desk may thump / And lecture, with a skill profound, / On Parliaments called 'Long' or 'Rump,' / On Scone (where Scottish kings were crowned); / On butts of Malmsey wine which drowned / The Prince who chanced therein to jump; / On Richard, Gloucester's Duke, renowned / For having a perpetual 'hump';