A teel of a tum

= a tale of a tub

This is the second reference to "A Tale of a Tub," Jonathan Swift's 1704 literary sensation (the first is on page 4, with reference to a tub and the adverb "swiftly" in the same sentence). The main section of "Tub" is an allegory involving three brothers who represent Catholicism, non-Anglican Protestantism, and Anglicanism; much of the rest is a collection of parodies of various writers and schools of thought. Very Wakian.

Alexander Pope cited "tub" as slang for a pulpit.

Note by Henry Craik to The Author's Preface from "Tale Of A Tub":

[quote:] The phrase "A Tale of a Tub" was used by Sir Thomas More to describe a pointless speech. Ben Jonson gave the name to an early comedy, in which one of the characters was "Squire Tub." Defoe, in a pamphlet published in 1704, on the grievances of Irish Dissenters, speaks of a certain Bill as a "Tale of a Tub," exactly in the sense here used by Swift, from whom it is quite possible that Defoe borrowed the phrase. [end-quote]

A tale of a tomb

A tale of a time