Titas, the braue and valorous[22] young gallant,
Three yeares together in this towne hath beene;
Yet my Lord Chancellor's tombe[23] he hath not seene
Nor the new water-worke,[24] nor the Elephant.[25]
I cannot tell the cause without a smile,--
He hath beene in the Counter[26] all this while.
[Footnote 21: Mr. Dyce corrects (as Isham) to 'Titum' and line 1st
'Titus.' G.]
[Footnote 22: MS. "Valient." G.]
[Footnote 23: Viz., of Sir Christopher Hatton, whose huge and splendid
monumental-tomb was long one of the London sights for country cousins.
Col. Cunningham (_in loco_) adds "It was erected in St. Paul's
Cathedral, and Bishop Corbet says was "higher than the host and altar."
G.]
[Footnote 24: Recently described by SMILES in his Lives of the
Engineers. _s. v._ G.]
[Footnote 25: It is curious to find the article '_the_' Elephant.
Coriat later gave his own portrait showing himself on the back of an
elephant, as a great wonder, in one of his travel title-pages. But
query--Is it the famous inn named by Shakespeare: "I could not find
him at the Elephant" (Twelfth Night, iv. 3)? Col. Cunningham (as
before) assuming it is the animal that is meant, annotates thus: "The
Elephant was an object of great wonder and long remembered. A curious
illustration of this is found in _The Metamorphosis of the Walnut
Tree_, written about 1645, where the poet [William Basse] brings trees
of all descriptions to the funeral, particularly a gigantic oak--
The youth of these our tymes that did behold
This motion strange of this unwieldy plant,
Now boldly brag with us that are more old,
That of our age they no advantage want,
Though _in our youth we saw an elephant_. G.]
[Footnote 26: Debtors' prison. G.]