* * * * *
Mr. Upton, who wrote the above song, also wrote many others for the convivial entertainments at Vauxhall Gardens towards the close of the last century. The music was composed by Mr. Hook, father of Theodore Hook, the celebrated wit and practical jokist.
The Lass of Richmond Ill.
[The Richmond Select Vestry, having sent to the Home Office a memorial with reference to the deplorable condition of the Thames in that district, Sir W. V. Harcourt has entered into communication with the Conservators, and has been informed by them that nothing can be done until a radical change is effected in the disposal of the London sewage.]
On Richmond Hill there lives a lass
Who on a bright May morn,
By sweeps of sewage mud must pass,
On Thames’s waters borne.
What does she meet? Spring breezes sweet?
No, muck is master still.