In the very next month the mood of disillusionment is apparent in the cartoon revealing friction and the delight of the ex-Bumble and ex-member of the Metropolitan Board of Works. Not that Punch regretted the Board, though he rendered justice to its greatest achievements in the decidedly mixed epitaph composed for its tombstone, to be surmounted by an armed figure labelled "Black Mail" and headed "Peace to Its Hashes":—
To the Melancholy Memory of
The Metropolitan Board of Works.
It was an Unfortunate Institution.
Flushed in the earlier years of its Existence,
With a laudable Ambition
To command the Respect and Admiration of the Ratepayers,
It gave an Embankment to the Thames,
Drained London,
And suddenly showed the world