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Title
Date(s)
- 14 Feb. 1872 (Creation)
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2 folded sheets, sewn together. MS.
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Short title written on first page, longer introduction above the poem on f. 2r: 'Phaethon Diabolobletos. Ye history of Dick Neckornough, driver of the Telegraph Coach | (taken from an ancient Manuscript, found in the buttery of St. John's College, Cambridge) | [The spelling is generally modernized]'.
First lines, 'Dick Neckornought sat in the White House tap / And a mournful man was he...'
Signed and dated at the end 'G. B. Airy. 1872 Feb. 14'.; a poem with this title, however, appears in the Sporting Magazine, Jan. 1826, supplementary issue. Enid Porter, in her article 'Stage Coaches' [Cambridge, Huntingdon and Peterborough Life 1(10) Apr. 1968 says that it was entered for the Chancellor's Gold Medal in English Verse in 1820 and won a special prize. The character of 'Dick Neckornought' is inspired by Richard Vaughan, driver of the Telegraph coach between London and Cambridge, who was known as 'Hell Fire Dick' and killed in an accident in 1816.
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Tipped into R.1.75.