"To Messrs. Dalziel Brothers,
"You have treated me so kindly that I dared, a little blindly,
An ambition and a future to your care to recommend.
He is timid, he is nervous, but may God above preserve us
If we cannot stretch a point or so to gratify a friend.
I have sent you oft a lyric, either genial or satiric:
Some were bad, and some indifferent, and some were very good.
So my errors don't be hard on, but beneficently pardon,
Were it only through the memory of dear old Tommy Hood."
Of W. S. Gilbert, of "Bab Ballads" and Comic Opera fame, it may not be generally known that all those "topsy-turvy" rhymes were published in Fun: though they were by no means the only work he did for the journal. For a considerable period he wrote a comic paraphrase upon the most popular play produced during the week, as well as an extremely clever series of papers called "People I Have Met." He also wrote several stories for the "Comic Annual." In his selected edition of "Fifty Bab Ballads" he gives the following account of how these happened to be published in Fun:
"It may interest some to know that the first of the series, 'The Yarn of the Nancy Bell,' was originally offered to Punch, to which I was at that time an occasional contributor. It was, however, declined by the then editor on the ground that it was 'too Cannibalistic' for his readers' taste."
To Even Money! By E. G. Dalziel. From Fun.
Teetotal Wife.—"Ah, when that 'evingly Sir Wilfrid 'as 'is way, 'e'll put that nasty beer down!"
Irreverent Brute.—"Hope he'll put it down to the price it used to was—thruppence a pot."