Keats and All That

"THE BEST OF MYLES" EXTRACT 2: KEATS AND ALL THAT
from Myles na gCopaleen's 'Cruiskeen Lawn' column in the Irish Times (Introduction)

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      It is not generally known that...
      O excuse me.
      Keats and Chapman (in the old days) spent several months in the county Wicklow prospecting for ochre deposits. That was before the day of (your) modern devices for geological divination. With Keats and Chapman it was literally a case of smelling the stuff out. The pair of them sniffed their way into Glenmalure and out of it again, and then snuffled back to Woodenbridge. In a field of turnips near Avoca Keats suddenly got the pungent effluvium of a vast ochre mine and lay for hours face down in the muck delightedly permeating his nostrils with the perfume of hidden wealth. No less lucky was Chapman. He had nosed away in the direction of Newtonmountkennedy and came racing back shouting that he too had found a mine. He implored Keats to come and confirm his nasal diagnosis. Keats agreed. He accompanied Chapman to the site and lay down in the dirt to do his sniffing.
      'Great mines stink alike,' he said.

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Come back tomorrow for another dose of the Flann