And then, forgetting she'd been weary,
She cried, "Oh, here comes Fred!"
And somehow then she seemed less dreary,
"How nice he looks!" she said.
H. C. NEWTON.
From Tom Hood's Comic Annual, 1884.
The Poet Laureate's cruise with Sir Donald Currie, in the autumn of 1883, was an event of some importance, as he was then afforded an opportunity of reading his poems to a select audience of Royal personages; it is generally supposed that it was during that trip also that the Prime Minister offered him the title, his acceptance of which has since been the subject of so much comment and censure. Punch (September 22, 1883) described the voyage to the north in the following comical medley of parodies of the Laureate's poems:—
A LAUREATE'S LOG.
(Rough Weather Notes from the New Berth-day Book.)