And deodorisation completely defy;
Where the air’s fill’d with smells that no nose can define,
And the banks teem prolific with corpses canine?
’Tis the stream of the Thames! ’tis the Pride of the Town!
Can a nuisance so dear to us e’er be put down?
Oh! fouler than words can in decency tell
Are the sights we see there, and the scents which we smell!
Punch, September 11, 1852.
A Byronic Valentine.