It rivals far and soon will leave behind the great Metropolis.
O dear O, Manchester’s an altered town, O dear O.
Once on a time were you inclin’d, your weary limbs to lave, sir,
In summer’s scorching heat in the Irwell’s cooling wave, sir;
You had only got to go to the Old Church for the shore, sir,
But since those days the fish have died, and now they are no more, sir.
When things do change you ne’er do know what next is sure to follow,
For mark the change in Broughton now, of late ’twas but a hollow
For they have found it so snug, and chang’d its etymology,
They have clapt in it a wild beast’s show, now call’d the Gardens of Zoology.