RECOLLECTIONS OF (COCKNEY) "ARABIAN" DAYS AND NIGHTS.
[Mr. MONTAGU WILLIAMS, Q.C., is about to publish, in the pages of Household Words, a series of descriptive articles, embodying his more than Wellerishly "extensive and peculiar" knowledge of London, and entitled "Round London, Down East, Up West.">[
When the breeze of romance in my youth blew free,
"A Welcome Guest" I was wont to see.
It was a right good time with me,
A joyful, book-devouring time.
Far about London I was borne,
From night to night, from morn to morn;
From Street to Park, from Tower to Dock.
I was conveyed "Twice Round the Clock."
True Sala-ite was I and sworn,
For it was in the golden prime
Of graphic GEORGE AUGUSTUS:
And now I find me revelling through
A magazine of saffron hue,
Called "Sala's Journal," and I swim
Once more in London's rushing tide,
Piloted as of old by him
Through "London Up to Date." With pride,
I own I have a goodly time,
For still it seems the golden prime
Of graphic GEORGE AUGUSTUS.
But many another since my youth
The streets of Babylon hath trod,
With a statistic measuring-rod,
Or philanthropic gauge. In sooth
There was GEORGE SIMS, there is CHARLES BOOTH.
We now search out the Social Truth;
A goodly plan, in the old time
Foreshadowed in the golden prime
Of worthy HENRY MAYHEW.
Now London Labour, London Poor,
Occupy pen and pencil more
Than Pictures in the Passing Show
Of the Immense Metropolis.
And few have knowledge such as his,
(The great Q.C., the worthy Beak!)
Of modern Babylon, high and low;
And so shall I with interest seek
These pages, full of interest,
"Round London, Down East, and Up West."
True picture of the present time,
Drawn for us by the pencil prime
Of good MONTAGU WILLIAMS!
