They are clearly dashed off quickly - there are a couple of crossings-out - to be sent with a letter to his friends Roger and Sarah Clark in Whitenights, so they are not as clear as they might have been. It does look as if Laurence was tempted, at the age of 87, to move to a milder climate further south. I wonder if anyone knows the ins and outs of this.
A Linked Limerick
There was an old man whom the weather Had brought to the end of his tether: Said he 'I will go To where (whether or no) We can all live in comfort together. On starting his journey to Heaven, He was well over eighty and seven; And somewhat half-hearted, Thought he, as he started, I'd better go northward of Devon. For though it's from Somerset, Street, That I now am directing my feet, If I do get to Heaven By going through Devon, There's some there I don't want to meet. And (as Roger so wisely remarks, When he strikes his oracular sparks) If I pluck up my roots It might pull off my boots - Which I get, at a discount, from Clark's. And out of this world and its mire To arrive like a bare-footed friar, With corns and with blisters, Dear brothers and sisters! - Is not what I greatly desire. And so, having Clark's to assist me - Though Devonshire's breed may resist me - I shall hope to meet dozens - Aunts, uncles, and cousins - All saying how much they have missed me. And now for the last of my wishes: - Having shared in the loaves and the fishes, To live safely and soberly In Burleigh Lane, Overleigh, Well quit of the World and its riches.
