_The Royal Agricultural Society's Journal_. A Society Journal of
a peculiar character, of which this is the Third Series and Third
Volume. It is noticeable for Lord CATHCART's appeal for the wild
birds, which, as addressed to farmers and farm-labourers and armed
ploughboys, may be summed up by an adaptation of the refrain of the
remonstrance--so frequently urged by one of Lieutenant COLE's funny
figures--"Can't you let the birds alone?" Then Mr. HASTING "On
Vermin," which doesn't sound nice, though better than if the title
were _vice versâ_,--is most interesting, especially where he tells us
that "shrews are harmless." If so, why did SHAKSPEARE give us "_The
Taming of the Shrew_" as such a feat? Professor BROWN writes about
disease in sheep, of which paper Lord ARTHUR WEEDON DE GROSSMITH
would be absolutely correct in observing, "What rot!" And, by the
way, _à propos_ of WEEDON, the Baron has to congratulate the Brothers
GROSSMITH on their _Diary of a Nobody_, republished from _Mr. Punch's_
pages, but with considerable additions. The Diary is very funny, not
a page of it but affords matter for a good laugh; and yet the story
is not without a touch of pathos, as it is impossible not to pity the
steady, prim, old-fashioned jog-trot NOBODY, whose son, but just one
remove above a regular 'ARRY, treats him with such unfilial rudeness.
It has been complained that the late General Election has not been
amusing, and has given birth to little fun. Let those who feel this
most acutely read Mr. R.C. LEHMANN's _The "Billsbury Election (Leaves
from the Diary of a Candidate)."_ He will tell you how Mr. RICHARD
B. PATTLE contested Billsbury in the Constitutional Interest; how he
"buttered up Billsbury like fun," was badgered by Billsbury, heckled
by Billsbury, taxed, tithed and tormented by Billsbury, and eventually
"chucked" by Billsbury, by the aggravatingly small majority of
seventeen. Also how his "Mother bore up like a Trojan, and said she
was prouder of me than ever." Just so.
I hold it true whate'er befall,
I wrote so, to the _Morning Post_;
'Tis better to have "run" and lost,
Than never to have run at all.
"Modern Types" and "Among the Amateurs" are well known to the readers
of _Punch_. But lovers of C.S. CALVERLEY--that is to say, all but a
very few ill-conditioned critical creatures--and of neat verse with a
sting to it, should turn to p. 203 (A.C.S. _v_. C.S.C.), and read and
enjoy the smart slating Mr. LEHMANN administers to tumid, tumultuous,
thrasonic, turncoatist ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE, for saying
of the brilliant and well-beloved Author of _Fly Leaves_, &c.,
that he--forsooth!--is "monstrously overrated and preposterously
overpraised"!!! BARON DE B.-W. & Co.
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