Punch: Punch (69.1875)

162

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[October 23, 1875.

GUILDHALL IN THE GREENWOOD.

" It had been the custom for the City Aldermen, after transacting their
ordinary business at Guildhall, to proceed to Epping Forest to hunt the deer."
—Times Report of the visit of the Corporation to Epping Forest on October 14.

0, Aldermen, to the
Forest—but not
to chase the deer;
'Tis a triumph
there they cele-
brate with pa-
geant and good
cheer.
Such a Lord
Mayor's Show in
the greenwood
glades is a novel
sight indeed,
Yet the Wood
Nymphs well
might welcome it
as it winds
through famed
Fairmead.

Guildhall in all its
glory amidst the
beeches dines,
And though the
cold may Turtle
chill, or the rain
dilute the wines,
They may not damp
the doughty Cits,
or arrest the
fluent flow

Of the toasts that pass o'er a brimming glass] as through the card
they go.

And Punch is there, and gladly drinks to the health of the Corpo-
ration.

These Civic Champions well have earned the cheer of a thankful
nation.

They stood to the front, and bore the brunt when the battle's storm
waxed sorest,

And from the ghoul Enclosure's prowl they saved the People's
Forest.

Maid Marian's self to such a "Mayre" a brimming stoupe had
quaffed,

Robin Hood had greeted such " Sheryfes " with shout instead of
shaft;

Stout Friar Tuck had wished them luck, fair quarry, and full bag,
If as of wont, the Epping Hunt meet again at the "Bald-faced Stag."

For " mery it is, in grene forest among the leves green,"
To see London's happy, holiday folk enjoy that sylvan scene.
And as they revel in " Englyshe shaw, under the green-wode tre,"
They shall bless the Corporation bold of London's fair Citye I

Five thousand acres well secured, ten thousand thanks well earned!
Be sure from Bethnal Green those thanks with interest are re-
turned ;

Pale Spitalfields its tribute yields, when its dense Easter throng,
"With voices stout shall swell the shout, two hundred thousand
strong!

Three cheers for the Common Councilmen who could take the
people's part,

With a better eye for Nature, than some of them show for Art I
Judicial Punch must shrug his hunch, when taste's bounds they 're
o'erstepping,

But he gladly owns a good set-off in the rescued glades of Epping.

THE CAT FOR CRUELTY.

Lord Aberdare, in his speech on Crime, at Brighton the other
day, called in question the hitherto undoubted fact that the decrease
of robbery with violence was owing to the punishment of that
offence by flogging. From the tone of his Lordship's remarks, he
does not appear to enter into those feelings which are solaced by the
consideration that a cruel ruffian, by whom a person's teeth have
been knocked out, or his skull cracked, or his nose smashed on his
face, has been scourged to the effect of making him howl some time
for mercy. To this extent Lord Aberdare is evidently deficient in
the heart that can feel for another.

However, it is idle to argue the point whether or no flogging has
diminished garotting. If this were at all doubtful, it might be
tested by a very practicable and most desirable experiment. The
crime of wife-beating and wife-kicking is just now prevalent.
Extend the punishment of flogging to savage assaults, and see
whether it does, or does not diminish them.

Lord Aberdare should consider that for crimes of violence the
cat-of-nine-tails is not merely an instrument of retribution. It is
a means of commencing the moral education of the criminal by
teaching him what it is to feel physical pain, which he did not con-
sider when he inflicted it. The Cat appeals to his sensitive nerves,
in which resides all the feeling he has, and to arouse this is, neces-
sarily, the first step in a process of development tending, as highly
as possible in his case, to the elevation of our fellow-man.

THE HOUSE AND THE HOME;

OR, HINTS TOWARDS A GRAMMAR OF DECORATIVE ART.

By Leonardo Della Robbia de Tudor Westpond Tumpkyns,
Esq., S.A.S., A.R.F., M.U.F., and Hon. Member of the Dulli-
dillitanty Society.

Paperhangings.—The most important feature in this portion of
decorative art is The Dado."

Origin of the Dado.—It is supposed originally to have been the
feminine of the now extinct Dodo. The Dodo and the Dado were
formerly, of course a very long time ago, caught, stuffed, and kept
in glass cases in the Atrium or Hall of the House. In order to dis-
play the plumage, the wall forming the back-ground to the Dado,
and visible through the glass, was coloured plainly in paper, or if
the bird had not been in good health, in "distemper"—but, as the
Latins said, Distempera mutantur, and as we haven't now got the
Dado, and are forced to do without her, so we perpetuate the
remembrance of her stuffed existence by colouring the wall of the
hall to a height of three or four feet from the floor. Whatever
colour you choose, bear what I have told you in mind, and don't
forget the Dado.

Flock patterns are, as might be supposed, a sheepish sort of
design, and I cannot recommend them.

For the pavement of a hall—and by a hall I mean something
more than a narrow passage between the front door and the dining-
room, lighted by an outside gas lamp—tiles should be used.

How to Collect Tiles.—Give several parties. At each party
several guests will do what Bo-Peep's sheep did with their tails—
and leave their "tiles" behind them. These tiles can be easily
arranged for the hall.

As for patterns in tiles, buy a kaleidoscope. It will supply you
with an endless variety of patterns.

But if you require Real Novelty, take my advice, and combine
the useful and amusing with the ornamental. Make your hall a
place where to spend, happily, a rainy day. Every householder
should make provision against a rainy day—and here you are;
here is your modus operandi: Lay down a chess-board pattern in

tiles. Have chess-men made as big as skittles. You can then walk
about and play the game. , ^ , „

The same pattern forming a chess-board will also do, ot course,
for draughts. But, as draughts should always be avoided m a
house, speciaUy in a hall, I will not be the first to introduce them.

A skittle alley, and an alley for American bowls, should form part
of every well-regulated hall.