It may be objected that _Mr. Punch's_ fifth example does not strictly
conform to the canons laid down by him in his prefatory remarks to No.
I. _Mr. Punch_ neither admits nor denies the charge. He is convinced,
however, that those who do him the honour to read these Studies, might
justly complain if he failed to include in them an example of the
work of a Poet who has shown our generation how rusticity and rhymes,
cattle and Conservative convictions, peasants and patriotism, may be
combined in verse. It is scarcely necessary to add that the author of
the following magnificent piece is Mr. A-FR-D A-ST-N. Like others who
might be named, he has not the honour to be an agricultural labourer;
but no living man has sung at greater length of rural life, and its
simple joys. Many of his admirers have asserted that Britain ought to
have more than one Laureate, and that Mr. A-FR-D A-ST-N ought to be
among the number. Others are not prepared to go quite so far. They
have been heard to complain that cows and trees, and woodmen and
farms, and sheep and wains, and hay and turnips, do not necessarily
suggest the highest happiness, and that it is not always dignified for
an aspiring Poet to be led about helpless through the byeways of sense
by those wilful, wanton playfellows, his rhymes. The two factions may
be left to fight out their quarrel over the present example, which,
by the way, is _not_ taken from the collected edition of the Poet's
works.