Crossword-Solution: SPRATS 6 letters, 43 clues 🏆 scrabble score: 8

Walking-coat from tail to throat is Frayed and greened -- Like a man whose other coat is Being cleaned; Gone for ever round the edging Past repair -- Waistcoat pockets frayed with dredging After 'sprats' no longer there.

Those rats, They fought the dogs and killed the cats, And bit the babies in the cradles, And ate the cheeses out of the vats, And licked the soup from the cooks' own ladles, Split open the kegs of salted sprats, Made nests inside men's Sunday hats, And even spoiled the women's chats By drowning their speaking With shrieking and squeaking In fifty different sharps and flats! At last it got so bad that the people simply couldn't stand it any longer.

Lord Chancellors were cheap as sprats, And Bishops in their shovel hats Were plentiful as tabby cats— In point of fact, too many.

Ambassadors cropped up like hay, Prime Ministers and such as they Grew like asparagus in May, And Dukes were three a penny: Lord Chancellors were cheap as sprats, And Bishops in their shovel hats Were plentiful as tabby cats— If possible, too many.

Long after, when Lord Chancellor, passing down Cursitor Lane one day, he said to his secretary, “Here was my first perch: many a time do I recollect coming down this street with sixpence in my hand to buy sprats for supper.” When at length called to the bar, he waited long for employment.