Evergreen

134 EVERGREEN Autumn
8. Michael Faraday
9. Sir Henry Irving
10. George Bernard Shaw
Two hats were hanging on a hat
rack in the hallway. One hat said to
the other: “You stay here, I’ll go on
a head.”
There was a person who sent ten
puns to friends, with the hope that
at least one of the puns would make
them laugh. No pun in ten did.
Victorians Revealed
How did you get on with those
disguised 19th-century luminaries over
the page? Here are their identities:
1. Queen Victoria
2. Prince Albert
3. Benjamin Disraeli
4. Alexander Graham Bell
5. Charlotte Brontë
6. Charles Darwin
7. David Livingstone
(continued)
A pack of Colin Carr Notelets will be
sent to those readers
whose contributions
are published in
this feature.
Please send your
snippets & cuttings
to: “Scrapbook”,
Evergreen,
The Lypiatts,
Lansdown Road,
Cheltenham,
Glos.,
GL50 2JA.
Wooden Wisdom
Autumn is a season of arboreal
splendour with its leafy canopies of
coppery hues. But once the leaves have
fallen, when the nights draw in and
the days get colder, we start to think of
the other more practical use for trees,
notably as firewood! This rhyme advises
which wood makes the best fuel:
Beech wood fires are bright and
clear,
If the logs are kept a year.
Chestnut’s only good they say,
If for long it’s laid away.
Birch and fir logs burn too fast,
Blaze up bright and do not last.
Elm wood burns like a churchyard
mould,
Even the very flames are cold.
Poplar makes a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke.
Apple wood will scent your room
With an incense like perfume.
Oak and maple, if dry and old,
Keep away the winter cold.
But ash wood wet and ash
wood dry,
A king shall warm his slippers by.
She’s Setting Sail
Ella Bateman, who lives at Tettenhall,
Staffordshire, wrote to us commenting
on the fact that the esteemed maritime
publication Lloyd’s List, is no longer
going to refer to ships in the traditional
way as “she”, but “it”. However,
the Royal Navy has said that it will
continue the time-honoured tradition.