On the 20th of July 1923 the Prince of Wales
Visited Dorchester and there met Thomas Hardy
This event was recorded in the diary of my grandfather
He also noted that on the morning of the royal visit
That he had dropped an ice cream cornet and a chocolate flake
Into the small goldfish pond at the bottom of his garden
This amused me as I had also witnessed the remains
Of an ice cream cornet sinking into a goldfish pond
The fish after an initial curiosity soon lost any interest
Although they dined happily on the thin chocolate flake
That had remained floating on the surface of the water
This happened in my Dorchester garden on the 20th of July 2022