To a Young Ass in the 18th-century, with many philosophers and writers, including Godwin, William Shield, and others, releasing their horses and mules to walk alongside them. A direct literary connection is to William Crowe's "To an Ass" (1793) and the poem incorporates a quote from William Shakespeare's "Hamlet". The idea of connecting with a lowly form of animal also appears in many literary works, including Robert Burns poems (example – "To a Mouse"), Southey's poems (example – "To a Spider"), the works of Laurence Sterne (both "Tristram Shandy" and "A Sentimental Journey") and Cervantes's "Don Quixote". Richard Holmes, Coleridge's 20th-century biographer, points out
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman Tristram Shandy is listed as one of the co-founders of The League. A short story "Oh Most Cursed Addition Engine" by H. S. Donnelly was published in the Canadian Science Fiction magazine "On Spec" #86. In it, Walter Shandy attempts to build an Addition Engine, while Toby and Corporal Trim re-enact in miniature Wellington's great victory at Vitoria. Trim was the adventurous ship's cat of the explorer Matthew Flinders, named after Corporal Trim, and a minor (yet titular) character in Bryce Courtenay's novel "Matthew Flinders' Cat". In the 1976 film "The Missouri Breaks", with Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson, Braxton,