The clanging crow-bar rings the pile’s decay The busy labourers make their work complete Daily the well known buildings glide away, And space and brightness grow upon the street. This was the first verse of a long parody which appeared in the “Free Lance” a paper published in Manchester, many years ago. A celebrated chop house stood in Newall’s Buildings, and the parody describes its principal frequenters, but the allusions are too local to be of any general interest. ――――:o:―――― THE SCALES. The piano sounds the knell of parting day; Next door the singing pupil shrieks high C; The cornet practices across the way, And gives the night to anguish and to me. ―――― “Full many a man, who now doth cheat the printer, Will waste his voice upon the heated air, And vainly sigh for cooling breeze of winter When he is punished for his sins down there.” From _Quads_. ―――― PASSAGE FROM LORD GREY’S ELEGY. Rads toll the knell of England’s passing day: The low dull herd will land her “up a tree.” Why _will_ they not send GLADSTONE’S gang away, And leave the world to Whigdom and to Me? _Punch._ September 10, 1881. ―――― A PERVERSION. Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its fragrance on the desert air; Full oft, the filthy oleomargarine Is served as premium butter from a fair, ―――― THE AUTHOR. No longer seek his failings to disclose, Nor on his faulty readings rudely press; But leave the jurist to his deep repose, Safe in the bosom of his loved MS. ―――― PENSIVE IN A BONEYARD. _A Fragment._ Perhaps in this selected spot are laid Some legs once regnant on bicyclic wire, Hands that the rod of riding may have swayed, And waked to parody the rotal lyre. _Lyra Bicyclica._ By J. S. Dalton, 1885. ――――:o:―――― IMITATIONS OF GRAY’S ELEGY. Imitations of Gray’s “Elegy” are not only numerous, but are, as a rule, both long and dull. It is not, therefore, advisable to reprint them in this collection, but for the sake of completeness, some of the best must be enumerated. William Mason, the poet, and biographer of Gray, ventured to write an imitation, entitled “An Elegy in a Churchyard in South Wales.” Mason said his desire was to describe a _day_ scene, so as to contrast it with the twilight scene of Gray’s “Elegy.”