The lounge was furnished in old English oak and big Knole settees. There were rugs from Tabriz and Kerman on the highly polished floor. […] A table lamp was fashioned from a silver Egyptian hookah.

The world's smallest violin / Really needs an audience / So if I do not find somebody soon (That's right, that's right) / I'll blow up into smithereens

When you’ve finished with the sponge, just plonk it back in the sink.

That these Bidentals, as Mr. Owen more comprehensively calls them, are amongst the earliest reptiles, has been somewhat rashly assumed.