Holograph Poem, in the form of an Autograph Letter Signed from the temperance campaigner Sir William Lawson to James Grahame, written from the point of view of a 'Blue bottle Fly', and described by its author as 'weak doggrell'.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The poem is of eighteen lines, and begins: 'I agree, my dear friend that whatever we feel | We are really no more than the "flies on the wheel." | And that there's little more which each one of [us] does | Than fluster & flurry & worry & buzz | But each has his place if he only could know it | But I doubt very much if my place is a poet! | But weak doggrell rhymes with a nice sprightly sound | Do not do any harm while the Wheel's going round.' He goes on to list the 'three things' he hates 'devoutly as "sin": 'gunpowder, "glory" & gin'. The three 'now encumber the ground' in England. 'Against these abuses I constantly cry | Till men say "What a beast of a Blue bottle Fly!' He does not mind what they say, and will 'keep buzzing against them' as long as he can. The poem concludes: 'And when I am dead & can't buzz any more | Other flies will come after & buzz as before'. Signed 'Sir Wilfred Lawson | to James Grahame'. The reference to 'glory' is to Lawson's opposition to the Second Boer War, which lost him his seat in Parliament.