Modern Decadence

‘Man to the Plough’
 
          1722                                1822
Man to the plough;                   Man tally-ho;
Wife to the cow;                        Miss piano;
Girl to the yarn;                        Wife silk and satin;
Boy to the barn;                        Boy Greek and Latin;
And your rent will be netted.    And you’ll all be Gazetted.
 
W.J. Bernhard Smith, ‘Man to the Plough’, Notes and Queries, 2.9 (19 May 1860), p. 392.
 
Notes: ‘gazetted’: ‘mentioned in The London Gazette’. This could mean the family is listed in the paper as bankrupt. Alternatively, it could mean the various members of the family are recipients of miscellaneous hours and superfluous commendations, as the Gazette prints appointments to public office, military commissions or honours, the granting of coat of arms or titles of nobility, etc.