Cobblets – Notelets for Cobbolds

An Epigram

As Tom was one day in deep chat with his mother

And talking about this, that thing and t’other

She strongly advised him if e’er he should wed

Over household affairs, his wife should be head

“Yes” replied Tom, “I’ve no objection to that

Let my wife be the head, but I’ll be the hat”

Seen recently in an Accountant’s office:

Everybody gives a little joy to this office,

Some when they arrive and some when they leave.

Richard Cobbold’s poetry

Richard Cobbold’s early poetry was not very good; well to be honest none of it was very good! It is said that having published it in 1827 he was so ashamed of his Valentine Verses that he bought back and destroyed every copy he could lay his hands on. Much Regency / Victorian poetry was overly sentimental and excessively wordy but Richard’s offering to his father in 1827 has a certain charm.

TO MY FATHER

God bless thee, God bless thee, thou dearest old man,

I owe thee ‘neath Providence all I possess,

Behold such another, O never I can!

And love such another, another such bless,

O never! O never! For thou to my sight,

To my heart, to my soul, art a welcome delight.

Thine age eighty-one, thine infirmities none,

Thine intellect bright, and thy judgment as clear,

Thy kindness to all, has been never outdone,

And thy goodness to all will for ever be dear.

Dearest father at thirty, Thy youngest but one

Writes the language of love, let that love be outdone.

This the record is true, fifteen children thy care,

Thou hast placed in the world, independently too,

One and all they must love thee, dear father we are

Devoted in honour, affection is due;

God bless thee, God bless thee, thou dearest old man,

May’st thou live, and be loved to the length of thy span.

Elizabeth Hider - recited poems

Arthur Thomas Cobbold’s great granddaughter, Elizabeth Hider (1894 – 1984) recited a number of her favourite poems from memory at her 90th birthday party. Here is one of them.

THE RACE By Ben Burroughs

It’s a torrid race we’re running……seldom do we rest,

Many fall by the wayside……for it’s a gruelling test.

Only the strong will finish……there’s no room for the weak,

Only those with steadfast faith……will ever reach the peak.

Yet we who are most fortunate……to have the will to win,

Must make allowances for those……who try but must give in.

For life is full of ups and downs……and not one of us knows

When we’ll need a helping hand……to stem the tide of woes.

Then someone we have aided……somewhere in the past

May be the very one we need……to help us to hold fast.

So the world keeps turning……the race is never done,

After a race is finished……there looms another one.

THE VERY REV DEAN EDWARD SPOONER

I was reminded recently that Anna Frances Cobbold (1830 – 1907) daughter of John Chevallier Cobbold (1797 – 1882) and Lucy Patteson (1800 – 1879) married as his second wife The Very Rev Edward Spooner (1821 – 1899), Dean of Hadleigh, scion of the family made famous by the ‘spoonerism’.

It was William Archibald Spooner (1844 – 1930) an Oxford don who inadvertently gave rise to the expression. He was a small, genial and hospitable man and some of his more famous quotations are:

• The Lord is a shoving leopard
• It is kisstomary to cuss the bride
• Mardon me padam, this pie is occupewed
• Can I sew you to another sheet?
• You’ll soon be had as a matter of course
• Let us raise our glasses to the queer old Dean
• We’ll have the hags flung out
• Go and shake a tower

In his honour the Middle Common Room at New College is known as ‘The Rooner Spoom’ Having said all that we don’t actually know what relation he was to ‘our’ Spooner!

RICHARD COBBOLD (1797 – 1877)

In a prefatory letter to the sick Richard Cobbold wrote “Speech must fail, our eyes grow dim, and our bodily exertions can only be for a time; but when we write, and publish that we write, we speak for years, and hope, though dead, that our speech may not be forgotten. There is a great pleasure in the thought that some souls may take comfort in these reflections”.

Although this was addressed to the sick we have always suspected that Richard Cobbold metaphorically ‘quite liked the sound of his own voice’, and this would seem to endorse that view. However, we are remembering him 157 years later.

In the same book we find him saying “Once I had the cholera: at the first visit of the physician, he asked me, in these words–‘Have you made your will, for your life is not worth eight hours?’ By God’s mercy I lived, and by His grace do make this Thank– offering for the good of others” God gave him another 27 years.

War Memorial to the South African War

Whilst in Bury St. Edmunds on Trust research we visited the War Memorial to the South African War which is also known as the 2nd. Boer War (1899–1902) It records the loss of:

• Private H Cobbold The Suffolk Regiment
• Private C Cobbold KOYLI

In London later the Trust acquired a post card illustration of the memorial which looks to be from about the 1920s. If any visitor to the web site can tell us anything about these two brave soldiers we would love to hear it.

COBBOLD & CO LTD — IPSWICH

The picture shows a Morris delivery lorry around 1929. Kelly’s Directory for that year has two entries for Cobbold & Co Ltd. firstly ‘Brewers and Beer Bottlers, Cliff Brewery TN 3191’ and secondly ‘Wine and Brandy merchants, 30 Lower Brook St. TN 3381’

W N COBBOLD….A POET

Amongst a recent magnificent gift from Elizabeth Jauncey were two books of poems by William Nevill Cobbold (1863–1922) Whilst most of his work is about WW1, two others caught our eye for their gentle, old fashioned, light and sensitive humour.

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