Beyond the river, bounding all, A crowd of chimneys stand, The Shot-concern their central point, As sooty as a band Of sweeps around their May-day Jack, Extended hand in hand.
The verdant Greenwich boat is come, The touter's lungs are strong; The cornet bloweth lustily, The "gents" indulge in song; And running down, the river flows Like black pea-soup along.
NEW LINES OF RAILWAY, IN CONTEMPLATION FOR 1846.
Capel Court and Queen's Bench Extension, with a branch to Whitecross Street. Somerset House and Andover Direct Junction. Central African. Herne Bay and Hanwell. Liverpool and New York Suspension. Golden Square and Michaelmas Day Junction.
THE ZODIAC—MARCH. ARIES.—THE RAM (IN SMITHFIELD). SONNET TO THE RAM INN.
Shrine of the sainted Bartlemy! whose _fête_ Was kept up in thy sanctum all the night, When for the booths the hours got too late, And stern policemen snuffed out every light From hoop of dips, or lamp balloon so bright, Leaving nought else to snuff but morning air; Fair temple! once a scene too gay to last, In every sense the focus of the fair!— But now thy glories all away have past! No more thy fiddlers country dances play (Polkas, thank goodness, were not known); no more Thy earnest votaries danced in wild array— Until they sent their feet right through the floor;— No—all have gone! the blight has seized thy hops! Unwieldy brutes block up thy very door! Sheep, laden with long loins of mutton-chops, And living steaks and sirloins by the score, Hereafter sent to "Dick's," the "Cheshire Cheese," The "Rainbow," and a hundred taverns more, Where waiters, frantic, ceaselessly do roar, "Cook, single mutton,"—"Small steak, underdone!" Or, "Chops to follow, with eschalot for one!"— Oh, Ram! my pen can't paint such scenes as these, The pens of Smithfield only should attest thy fun.
Lady-day is the 25th. If you mean to change your residence about that time, bespeak a van in time, large enough to carry off everything at once without coming back again. But as March is a month in which the wind is generally very easily raised, hope for the best.
That Parliament gets into full swing this month; therefore, give up all notion of seeing a newspaper in a coffee-room under an hour after the sixth gentleman has applied for it.