Now, isn’t this much better that the live-stock should be so, Than as seen by our grandfathers some fifty years ago? And may the price of butchers’ meat a great deal cheaper grow; Then success attend exhibitors, and the Christmas Cattle Show! And the fine Young Agriculturist, one of the modern time. From _Banter_, Edited by G. A. Sala. December 9, 1867. ―――― THE ROMANCE OF KELLY’S POST-OFFICE DIRECTORY. We hear of days long passed away, and glorious times of old, And how Young England’s sons affirm we’re getting dull and cold; But yet romance is not quite dead――in common daily life She still exists; of which great fact you’ll find examples rife In the Post-office Directory, all of the present year. The mighty minds of every age you’ll meet therein combined, John Milton, as a tea dealer, in Mary’bone you’ll find; And Isaac Walton in the East, has stores of pens and quills; And Hogarth trades in ham and beef, and Butler deals in pills, In the Post-office Directory, &c. _(The Author continues to string notable names together in this style for six more verses.)_ In fact, there’s nought or nobody the keen compilers spare, And all we have immortalised are _bona fide_, there; Just turn to the last copy, and you’ll find them all forthwith, Unless you chance to lose yourself amongst the tribes of Smith, In Kelly’s last Directory, all of the present year. From _A Pottle of Strawberries_, by Albert Smith. 1848. ―――― In the following notes, extracts are given from a few parodies which are not sufficiently amusing to be quoted in full. An uninteresting political parody of the “The fine old English Gentleman” in eight verses, is contained in a small pamphlet entitled _Blasts from Bradlaugh’s own Trumpet_, published by Houlston and Sons, London, about 1883. It commences thus:―― I sing a brand new song which may old faiths eradicate, About the B. whose buzzing has been heard so much of late, Whose craze it is to scheme to be Protector of the State, And thinks that being bulky is the same as being great, A much mistaken demagogue, Of the self-anointed line. The Christmas number of _The World_ for 1885 had a parody commencing, “A good old English gentleman, all of the olden school, Is a person who our sympathy commands” which dealt with political topics; whilst the very unpoetical subject of the Irish Land Acts was considered at great length, and in a rather heavy style, in a parody which appeared in _Kottabos_ for 1881, over the signature M.