"I venture to affirm that I have done something more than has been accomplished by my predecessors, or contemporaries, with the significant language under consideration. I have written _a purely flash song_; of which the great and peculiar merit consists in its being utterly incomprehensible to the uninformed understanding, while its meaning must be perfectly clear and perspicuous to the practised _patterer_ of _Romany_, or _Pedler's French_. I have, moreover, been the first to introduce and naturalize amongst us a measure which, though common enough in the Argotic minstrelsy of France, has been hitherto utterly unknown to our _pedestrian_ poetry." How mistaken Ainsworth was in his claim, thus ambiguously preferred, the present volume shows. Some years after the song alluded to, better known under the title of '_Nix my dolly, pals,--fake away!'_ sprang into extra-ordinary popularity, being set to music by Rodwell, and chanted by glorious Paul Bedford and clever little Mrs. Keeley. _The Game Of High Toby_ and _The Double Cross_ _See_ note to "Nix my Doll, Pals, etc.," _ante_. _The House Breaker's Song_ G. W. M. Reynolds followed closely on the heels of Dickens when the latter scored his great success in _The Pickwick Papers_. He was a most voluminous scribbler, but none of his productions are of high literary merit. _The Faking Boy To The Crap Is Gone_ _The Nutty Blowen_ _The Faker's New Toast_ and _My Mother_ "Bon Gualtier" was the joint _nom-de-plume_ of W. E. Aytoun and Sir Theodore Martin. Between 1840 and 1844 they worked together in the production of _The Bon Gualtier Ballads_, which acquired such great popularity that thirteen large editions of them were called for between 1855 and 1877. They were also associated at this time in writing many prose magazine articles of a humorous character, as well as a series of translations of Goethe's ballads and minor poems, which, after appearing in _Blackwood's Magazine_, were some years afterwards (1858) collected and published in a volume. The four pieces above mentioned appeared as stated in _Tails Edinburgh Magazine_ under the title of "Flowers of Hemp, or the Newgate Garland," and are parodies of well-known songs. _The High Pad's Frolic_ and _The Dashy, Splashy.... Little Stringer_ Leman Rede (1802-47) an author of numerous successful dramatic pieces, and a contributor to the weekly and monthly journals of the day, chiefly to the _New Monthly_ and _Bentley's_. He was born in Hamburgh, his father a barrister. Some of the best parts ever played by Liston, John Reeve, Charles Mathews, Keeley, and G. Wild were written by him. _The Bould Yeoman_ _The Bridle-Cull and his little Pop-Gun_ _Jack Flashman_ _Miss Dolly Trull_ and _The By-Blow Of The Jug_ _See_ Note to "Sonnets for The Fancy" p. 225. Captain Macheath was one of Egan's latest, and by no means one of his best, productions. It is now very scarce. _The Cadger's Ball_