What was it about Victorian men of intellect and creativity that turned them to nonsense?

After Lewis Carroll yesterday, here today Edward Lear, the fine landscape painter of Egypt, Greece, India, and the Holy Land, doing what he is most renowned for – writing limericks. Some of them had Scottish subjects, as can be seen here. This is Lear's bicentenary year.

There was an Old Person of Gretna,

Who rushed down the crater of Etna;

When they said, 'Is it hot?'

He replied, 'No, it's not!'

That mendacious Old Person of Gretna.

There was an Old Man on the Border,

Who lived in the utmost disorder;

He danced with the Cat,

And made Tea in his Hat,

Which vexed all the folks on the Border.

There was an Old Man with a beard,

Who said 'It is just as I feared! -

Two Owls and a Hen,

Four Larks and a Wren,

Have all built their nests in my beard!'

There was an Old Person of Fife,

Who was greatly disgusted with life;

They sang him a ballad,

And fed him on Salad,

Which cured that Old Person of Fife.

There was an Old Person of Wick,

Who said, 'Tick-a-Tick, Tick-a-Tick;

Chickabee, Chickabaw.'

And he said nothing more,

That laconic Old Person of Wick.