London Lyrics

by Frederick Locker-Lampson

Transcribed from the 1904 Methuen & Co. edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

LONDON
LYRICS

By FREDERICK LOCKER

WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
By A. D. GODLEY

WITH A FRONTISPIECE
By GEORGE CRUIKSHANK

london
METHUEN & CO.
36 essex street, w. c.
mdcccciv

CONTENTS
	page
Introduction	[vii]
The Castle in the Air	[1]
The Cradle	[8]
O Tempora Mutantur!	[12]
Piccadilly	[15]
The Old Clerk	[19]
The Garter	[23]
The Pilgrims of Pall Mall	[30]
The Russet Pitcher	[34]
The Enchanted Rose	[39]
Circumstance	[42]
A Wish	[43]
My Life is a—	[46]
Vanity Fair	[48]
Bramble-Rise	[51]
Old Letters	[56]
Susannah	[59]
My Firstborn	[63]
The Widow’s Mite	[66]
St George’s, Hanover Square	[68]
A Sketch in Seven Dials	[70]
Miss Edith	[72]
A Glimpse of Gretna Green, in the Distance	[75]
The Four Seasons	[78]
Enigma	[80]
Enigma	[81]
To the Printer’s Devil	[83]
Notes	[85]

INTRODUCTION

The father of Frederick Locker Lampson (or Frederick Locker, according to the name by which he is generally known) was Edward Hawke Locker, at one time Commissioner of Greenwich Hospital. He is described in the “Dictionary of National Biography” as “a man of varied talents and accomplishments, Fellow of the Royal Society, an excellent artist in water-colour, a charming conversationalist, an esteemed friend of Southey and Scott.” Frederick, the author of “London Lyrics,” “was born,” Mr Augustine Birrell, his son-in-law, writes in Scribner’s Magazine (January 1896), “in Greenwich Hospital in 1821. After divers adventures in various not over well selected schools, and a brief experience of the City and of Somerset House, he became a clerk in the Admiralty, serving under Lord Haddington, Sir James Graham, and Sir Charles Wood. He was twice married—first, to Lady Charlotte Bruce, a daughter of Lord