LICKBARROW v. MASON.
(1 Sm. L. C. 737.—Temp. 1786-1793.)
By John Popplestone.
THE story told in the old Term Reports
Of Mason and Lickbarrow, and the right
To stop in transit goods, unpaid for, sold
To an insolvent; and when nights are long
Read by each student lovingly with care
Ere yet he girds him for his Final day.
For Freeman, as beside the Hasingvliet—
Fairest of all fair waterways that thread,
By street and bridge, the town of Rotterdam,
Where land and water meet, and every spire
Lies deep reflected in the waves beneath—
He paced half lost in meditative mood,
Spoke thus to Turings: "Lo! the summer wanes;
The corn that waved so fairly, while the Sun
Stood at his zenith, lies within your barns.
Send me a cargo; send it me, I pray,
There where the Royal Liver makes her nest,
At Liverpool, beyond the Northern Sea,
And I will pay you by acceptances."
Then Turings, hearing, did as he was prayed,
And through the northern water the white spray
Foamed and dashed high in air. Yet, ere he went,
Sang Holmes, the bravest of all knights who stood
Upon the vessel's deck, and Captain called,
And loud his voice and cheery. Thus he sang:
"Four bills of lading I have signed to-day;
Three bills of lading soon have passed away,
For Turings has them; three and one are four.
"One bill of lading still do I retain;
One I shall have when the good ship shall gain
Her distant port; and three and one are four."
