Cucumbers - George Markham Tweddell

Cucumbers.
I.

Mayhap all Cucumber might disagree
With Canon Barnham’s stomach;† and, if so,
He acted wisely if he did forgo
The use thereof; though it appears to me
Many blame Cucumber, when they have eat 5
Therewith some food they could not well digest.
O’er fifty years I’ve eat them with a zest
I wish to all mankind with all their meat.
I thank you, friend, for those thou sent
Often as presents: they were all well grown, 10
And did thy gardener credit. For mine own
Eating, I find them pleasant. I have spent
Money on others not one half as good,
And think they help to purify one’s blood.
II.
Quick-grown in shade, with heat and moisture due, 15
They are most tender and digestible;
But if to solar light exposed too full,
Then they are tough and bitter. Well they knew
Their value in old Egypt, many a few
Missing the fragrant vegetable when 20
The[y] sojourn’d in the Wilderness:* and then,
After they gain’d the Promised Land, they grew
Gardens of Cucumbers, for as the view
Extended, each with Lodge to guard the same.x
The Romans knew their worth; perhaps with them came 25
Their culture into England: well our fathers knew,
In the Third Edward’s time, to grow the plant
Of whose produce than thine I never better want.

George Markham Tweddell
† “It’s that confounded Cucumber, I’ve eat and can’t digest.”
Barham’s Ingoldby Legends: “The Confession.”
* Numb. XI., 5.
X Isaiah 1., 8.
[Sonnets on Trees and Flowers, pp. 66-67.] Published also in
Masonic Review, Cincinnati, Sept, 1891.