* * * * *
Minor Notes.
_Gray--"The ploughman homeward plods."_--On looking over some MSS. which
I had not seen for years, I met with one of which the following is a copy:
"A person had a paper folded with this line from Gray marked on
it--
'The ploughman homewards plods his weary way.'
A poetical friend, on looking at the quotation, thought it
might be expressed in various ways without destroying {242}
the rhyme, or altering the sense. In a short time he produced
the following eleven different readings. It is doubtful whether
another line can be found, the words of which admit of so many
transpositions, and still retain the original meaning:--
1. The weary ploughman plods his homeward way.
2. The weary ploughman homeward plods his way.
3. The ploughman, weary, plods his homeward way.
4. The ploughman weary homeward plods his way.
5. Weary the ploughman plods his homeward way.
6. Weary the ploughman homeward plods his way.
7. Homeward the ploughman plods his weary way.
8. Homeward the ploughman weary plods his way.
9. Homeward the weary ploughman plods his way.
10. The homeward ploughman weary plods his way.
11. The homeward ploughman plods his weary way."
I know not whether this has ever appeared in print. To me it is new, at
least it was, as I now recollect, when I read it several years ago; but
as the exercise is ingenious, I thought I would trespass on "N. & Q."
with it, so that, if not heretofore printed or known, it might be made "a
note of."