[Illustration]
And have you not read of eight jolly young watermaids,
Lately at Cookham accustomed to ply
And feather their oars with a deal of dexterity,
Pleasing the critical masculine eye?
They swing so truly and pull so steadily,
Multitudes flock to the river-side readily;--
It's not the eighth wonder that all the world's there,
But this watermaid eight, ne'er in want of a stare.
What sights of white costumes! What ties and what hatbands,
"Leander cerise!" We don't wish to offend,
But are these first thoughts with the dashing young women
Who don't dash too much in a spurt off Bourne End?
Mere nonsense, of course! There's no "giggling and leering"--
Complete ruination to rowing and steering;--
"All eyes in the boat" is their coach's first care,
And "a spin of twelve miles" is as naught to the fair.
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THEATRICAL NEWS.--During the absence of _Beckett_ from London, and
_The Second Mrs. Tanqueray_ having left town, _The Tempter_ in the
Haymarket tried to entice _Charley's Aunt_ from the Globe to go in for
_A Life of Pleasure_ at Drury Lane, but _The Other Fellow_ from the
Court induced her to go for _A Trip to Chicago_ in The Vaudeville,
where he cruelly abandoned her, to take up with _La Fille de Madame
Angot_, at the Criterion. But she soon let him know what _A
Woman's Revenge_ at the Adelphi was like, and he sailed away in
the Shaftesbury, _Morocco Bound_, pursued by _Don Quixote_, who had
watched the proceedings from the Strand. The lady who in the meantime
had obtained the fortunate talisman of _La Mascotte_ from the Gaiety,
was provided by DALY'S Company with _Dollars and Sense_, and is now
doing uncommonly well. But the villain, who would have made her his
victim, will soon experience the result of _Sowing the Wind_ at the
Comedy.
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"SUBGRADUATUS INDIGNANS" writes.--"SIR,--Within the last fortnight on
one day I find in the _Standard_ that '_seventy degrees were recorded
at Cambridge_!' How's this? During Long Vacation!! Who conferred these
degrees? What degrees? Who got 'em? Where's the Vice-Chancellor? I
pause for a reply. P S.--Beg pardon! Find I have overlooked head of
paragraph, '_The falling barometer_,' &c., &c., so that _perhaps_ I
may be in error."
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