Scatological verse.- New invented patent Water Closets with a Screen for the Ladies. By Sir Wilful Wiseacre, [c. 1780].

Scatological verse.- New invented patent Water Closets with a Screen for the Ladies. By Sir Wilful Wiseacre, manuscript verse, 20 lines, beginning "The modest Maid or bashful Dame / May now indulge in Sweets or Posset / Fearless that she'll expose her Fame / So screen'd's our patent Water Closet", sheet 31 x 20 cm (12 ¼ x 7 7/8 in.), ink on laid paper with Britannia watermark, a few tears (no loss) where folded for the post, verso postmarked Bury (Lancs.) and addressed to Chas. Blatchley Esqr, Bury, [c. 1780]

⁂ Not traced in Crum and apparently unrecorded. The first patent for a flush water closet with an S-trap was granted in 1775 to the Scottish watchmaker Alexander Cumming.