Europe and elsewhere, by Mark Twain [pseud.] [with an appreciation by Brander Matthews and an introduction by Albert Bigelow Paine]

MEMORABLE MIDNIGHT EXPERIENCE
the people come and put flowers on it. Why, along
at first they almost had to cart the flowers out, there
were so many. Could not leave them there, you
know, because it's where everybody walks-and
a body wouldn't want them trampled on, anyway.
All this place about here, now, is the Poet's
Corner. There is Garrick's monument, and Addison's, and Thackeray's bust-and Macaulay lies
there. And here, close to Dickens and Garrick, lie
Sheridan and Doctor Johnson-and here is old Parr
-Thomas Parr-you can read the inscription:
"Tho: Par of Y Covnty of Sallop Borne A:I483. He
Lived in Y Reignes of Ten Princes, viz: K. Edw. 4
K. Ed. 5. K. Rich 3. K. Hen. 7. K. Hen. 8. Edw. 6. QVV. Ma.
Q. Eliz. K. IA. and K. Charles, Aged 152 Yeares, And
Was Buryed Here Novemb. 15. I635.
"Very old man indeed, and saw a deal of life.
(Come off the grave, Kitty, poor thing; she keeps
the rats away from the office, and there's no harm
in her-her and her mother.) And here-this is
Shakespeare's statue-leaning on his elbow and
pointing with his finger at the lines on the scroll:
"The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit shall dissolve,
And, like the baseless fabric of a vision,
Leave not a wrack behind.
"That stone there covers Campbell the poet.
Here are names you know pretty well-Milton, and
Gray who wrote the 'Elegy,' and Butler who wrote
'Hudibras,' and Edmund Spencer, and Ben Jonsonthere are three tablets to him scattered about the
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