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