Page:1898 NB Magazine.djvu/288
good order, to be ground and bolted at your mill, I send likewise four empty bags to be filled with Indian meal, all of which you will please to order put on board White's vessel on his return and send the price of the meal. You will perhaps think it extraordinary proceedings to send grist from this to your mill, but I really think it the cheapest method I can take to get grinding at this time. I am Dear Sir
"Your most obed't Serv't,
"Dan'l Bliss."
"Bellmont," it may be observed, is the property about eight miles below Fredericton formerly the residence of the late Lieut.-Governor Hon. R. D. Wilmot and now in possession of his sons.
AN OLD TIME PUNSTER.
Doctor Mather Byles, the father of the well known Rev. Dr. Byles, second rector of Trinity Church, St. John, was celebrated in his day as a wit and making puns was his special delight. The Doctor's penchant exposed him to criticism from certain quarters, a fate that has attended every punster. The Doctor moreover was quite a poet, and it is related that in the year 1732, having embarked in the Scarborough man of war in company with Governor Belcher to visit some of the Indian tribes in eastern New England, he was called upon to perform divine service on a Sunday, which he did. On enquiry no psalm book was found on board the ship, consequently there was no singing at the morning service. At the Governor's request Doctor Byles composed a hymn, which was sung by the congregation at the afternoon service. The account of this incident having reached Boston, Joseph Green, a famous wag in his day and generation, perpetrated the following burlesque:—
Byles found one morning at his tea;
"Alas why did not David write
A proper psalm to sing at sea?"