A jocular guide to the Edinburgh Exhibition of 1886 was compiled by Mr. George Stronach, and published by Robert Mitchell, of Edinburgh. It was entitled “Our Own-eries; or, The Show in the Meadows; a dog-gerel cat-alogue,” and was profusely and humourously illustrated. It contained several amusing parodies on The Mikado, and one on Tennyson’s Brook, but as they related only to the Exhibition they were of purely local interest, and are now out of date.
In The Bab Ballads, which originally appeared in Fun (London), may be found the germs of several of Mr. Gilbert’s plays and operas, sketches of plots afterwards amplified, and snatches of song which were, later on, to be linked to Arthur Sullivan’s music, and so made famous.
The following, which appeared in Fun twenty years ago, contains part of the plot of H. M. S. Pinafore:—
JOE GOLIGHTLY;
Or, The First Lord’s Daughter.
A tar but poorly prized
Long, shambling, and unsightly,
Thrashed, bullied, and despised,
Was wretched Joe Golightly.
He bore a workhouse brand,