Then comes the election for Westminster: Burdett, Hobhouse, and Lamb. He had a song:—
“Oh, Cammy Hobby is the man,
And so is daddy Sir Franky, O;
The Hon. W. Lamb is going mad
And kicking like a donkey, O.”
“Oh, the naughty Lamb—
The miserable sinner, O
We’ll have him roast and boil’d
And cut him up for dinner, O.”
During the whole time of the election party spirit ran very high. A real lamb’s head with a real rat in its mouth, was stuck upon the top of a pole. From the rat’s tail hung a cock’s comb. On the lamb’s head was placed a lawyer’s wig, surmounted with a fool’s cap. On a board immediately below the head, was inscribed in front—“Behold the ratting lamb, with a cock’s comb at his tail.” On the other side, the inscription was—
“If silly lambs will go ratting,
’Tis fit they get this sort of batting.”[3]
Then came The Dog’s Meat Man-Founded on fact:—
In Gray’s Inn Lane, not long ago.
An old maid lived a life of woe;
She was fifty-three, with a face like tan,
When she fell in love with a dogs’-meat man.
Much she loved this dogs’-meat man,
He was a good-looking dogs’-meat man;
Her roses and lilies were turn’d to tan,
When she fell in love wi’ the dogs’-meat man.
Every morning when he went by,
Whether the weather was wet or dry,
And right opposite her door he’d stand,
And cry “dogs’-meat,” did this dogs’-meat man.
Then her cat would run out to the dogs’-meat man,
And rub against the barrow of the dogs’-meat man,
As right opposite to her door he’d stand,
And cry “Dogs’ Meat,” did this dogs’-meat man.
He said his customers, good lord!
Owed him a matter of two pound odd;
And she replied, it was quite scan-
Dalous to cheat such a dogs’-meat man.
“If I had but the money,” says the dogs’-meat man,
“I’d open a tripe-shop,” says the dogs’-meat man,
“And I’d marry you to-morrow.”—She admired the plan,
And she lent a five-pound note to the dogs’-meat man.
He pocketed the money and went away,
She waited for him all next day,
But he never com’d; and then she began
To think she was diddled by the dogs’-meat man;
She went to seek this dogs’-meat man,
But she couldn’t find the dogs’-meat man;
Some friend gave her to understan’
He’d got a wife and seven children—this dogs’-meat man.
Mother Cummins lived and kept Brothels in Dyot Street, Bloomsbury Square, after, and still called George Street, named after the Prince Regent George 4th, at that time “Beggar’s Opera” where the Prince and nobles resorted was at the Rose and Crown, Church Lane, St. Giles. Catnach printed her life. In the Beggar’s Opera, were assembled matchmakers, beggars, prigs and all the lowest of the low. There was old black Billy Waters, with his wooden leg, dancing and playing his fiddle, and singing:—
Polly will you marry me—Polly don’t you cry,
Polly come to bed with me; and get a little boy.
some were dipping matches, some boiling potatoes and salt herrings, some swearing, some dancing—all manners of fun, &c.
Then comes Queen Caroline’s trial; Catnach gets out a song:—