2-756-369 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Dr. Syntax Reading His "Tour" in the Kitchen of the Dun Cow', c1815, (1943). 'Syntax now felt a strong desire, To smoke his pipe by kitchen fire...When, having supp'd and drunk his ale, And silence seeming to prevail, He slowly from his pocket took, His travelling memorandum book...Each hearer, as th' infection crept, O'er the numb'd sense, unconscious slept! One dropp'd his pipe - another snor'd, His bed of down an oaken board; The cobbler yawn'd, then sunk to rest, His chin reclining on his breast: All slept at length but Tom and Sue, For they had something else to do'. Combe and Rowlandson's comic character Dr Syntax is reading to fellow guests in the Dun Cow inn - most of them are yawning or asleep while Tom and Sue canoodle in the corner by the fire. Illustration from Combe's "Tour of Dr. Syntax in Search of the Picturesque". Published in "English Inns", by Thomas Burke. [Collins, London, 1943]