That marked the first night at the Hay-mar-ket,
So long live the manager, long live he,
Here’s success both to Mr. and Missis B.,
And may we all often go there to see
The plays they produce to delight you and me,
E’en though they’ve abolished the P. I. T.
Judy. February 11, 1880.
In the old days of the Haymarket Theatre under the management of J. B. Buckstone, the pit was the most comfortable in London; but, Buckstone died in debt, whilst after abolishing the pit the Bancrofts made a fortune in a few years.
Mirth and Metre, by Frank E. Smedley and Edmund H. Yates, published by G. Routledge & Co., 1855, was a small shilling book of poetry, written avowedly in imitation of Barham’s Ingoldsby Legends, besides containing several excellent parodies of other authors.