A Pinch of Snuff.

[King (William, of Mallow)]

A Pinch of Snuff.

Description: manuscript in ink on paper, 3 pp. on a folio bifolium, watermarked 1795, a little browned around the edges, and a little dust-soiling, the bifolium separated at the top and with 2 small holes in the fold (not affecting text),

Publication Details: [?Ireland:] c. 1795

Notes: Said, by F.W. Fairholt in his history of Tobacco, to have been written in 1788 by the Irish clergyman 'but never printed', Fairholt gives 36 lines of it, beginning in mid-sentence. Our version has 58 lines, plus the missing part of the mid-sentence. Our copy also has a MS clarification, and is signed 'Clio'. The line 'The cloth and Lumber all removed' [from the table] has the word Lumber asterisked, and the note in the margin says 'not the Ladies.' Fairholt says he had the poem from a MS in the possession of Crofton Croker. The Croker correspondence in Cork City Library includes 2 letters to F...moreSaid, by F.W. Fairholt in his history of Tobacco, to have been written in 1788 by the Irish clergyman 'but never printed', Fairholt gives 36 lines of it, beginning in mid-sentence. Our version has 58 lines, plus the missing part of the mid-sentence. Our copy also has a MS clarification, and is signed 'Clio'. The line 'The cloth and Lumber all removed' [from the table] has the word Lumber asterisked, and the note in the margin says 'not the Ladies.' Fairholt says he had the poem from a MS in the possession of Crofton Croker. The Croker correspondence in Cork City Library includes 2 letters to Fairholt, but the poem is not mentioned. The matter in our MS before that printed by Fairholt, is indeed introductory:-'A Pinch of Snuff my Pen engagesA Theme unknown to former Ages.'This is, apparently, the unpublished complete version of the poem. HIDE

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