What I saw in the fire - drawn by A. Crowquill, 1861. Illustration to a poem by A. C-Rambo, (probably a pseudonym of Crowquills as well as an allusion to the popular Victorian game Dumbo Crambo). When dozing by my Christmas fire, Id dined; And feeling just for forty winks Inclined To while the time away...When all at once amidst the glowing coal I saw strange faces - stern, fantastic, droll; Bright fairies, gnomes, and witches of the night; Kings, ladies, sprites, all marshalled in the light; Next frowning rocks, with castles on the top, That blazed, and fumed, and spat, but did not stop Crashing And dashing. Castles and people, all the funny souls, Tumbled pell-mell amidst the burning coals... Then strange The change 1 And the debris, Youd see, Pick itself out of all the danger. Turning at once to something, wilder, stranger, There was such piecing, And increasing. Hundreds were there: I counted every one. Such heads and faces, Not to mention graces!...[I] seized the poker straight, And started all the phantoms from the grate, Resolving just to try if memry could Produce the fantasy again on wood. So, here it is; but really, on the whole, The great idea was better in the coal. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.