Derby himself. In fact, there is no such a person at all as Edward Lear."

"Yet," said the other lady, "some friends of mine tell me they know Mr.
Lear."

"Quite a mistake! completely a mistake!" said the old gentleman, becoming
rather angry at the contradiction; "I am well aware of what I am saying: I
can inform you, no such a person as 'Edward Lear' exists!"

Hitherto I had kept silence; but as my hat was, as well as my handkerchief
and stick, largely marked inside with my name, and as I happened to have in
my pocket several letters addressed to me, the temptation was too great to
resist; so, flashing all these articles at once on my would-be
extinguisher's attention, I speedily reduced him to silence.

The second volume of Nonsense, commencing with the verses, "The Owl and the
Pussy-Cat," was written at different times, and for different sets of
children: the whole being collected in the course of last year, were then
illustrated, and published in a single volume, by Mr. R.J. Bush, of 32
Charing Cross.

The contents of the third or present volume were made also at different
intervals in the last two years.

Long years ago, in days when much of my time was passed in a country house,
where children and mirth abounded, the lines beginning, "There was an old
man of Tobago," were suggested to me by a valued friend, as a form of verse
lending itself to limitless variety for rhymes and pictures; and
thenceforth the greater part of the original drawings and verses for the
first "Book of Nonsense" were struck off with a pen, no assistance ever