215
December 2, 1865.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARJVARI.
NOBS AND SNOBS.
Poor Earl Dudley!
Not for his broad acres, not for all his fine houses, not for all his
coal and his iron, not for all the pearls and diamonds and lace with which
his new Countess was glorified in the eyes of Jenkins, would we stand
to be steamed with the incense and pelted with the oblations of British
Snobbery, as he has been for the last week or two, only because he has
gone and got married!
We have spoken of Jenkins, but his hymeneal raptures are matters
of course. What is better worth Punch's notice is the industrious
kotowing of the Bumbledom of the Black Country to their biggest
Black Diamond. When one thinks of what that Black Country is, its
miles of sooty, cindery, slaggy desolation by day ; its lurid horror by
night; its foul and tottering cottages, with their untaught, ill-clad,
un-kempt and uncared-for swarms; its drunkenness, its misery, and its
vice ; its brutal men, its unsexed women, its children stunted in mind
and body by premature toil, it is a comfort to fall back on the one
set-off to all this—the splendours of Whitley and Himley, the glory of
Earl Dudley’s wedding, the costliness of the parures and trousseaux,
the magnificence of the presents, the ineffable exquisiteness of
the millinery.
Here is the oasis in that Black Country desert, wherein the snobbery
of the region can disport itself, and do homage, and grovel, and lick the
shoes of its big man, to its snobbish heart’s content.
Worcester lies within the orbit of the Dudley sun, and its Council
has been sucked in by the all-absorbing influence which draws on to
its knees the Snobbery of that portion of the Midlands. The Mayor of
Worcester, in calling the attention of the Council to the awful, yet
intoxicating, subject, observed that—
“ The Council were noted, he was happy to say, for not paying court to the nobles
of the county simply because they were noblemen, and he should be sorry if the
year of his Mayoralty were to be marked by any departure from the rule, if there
was any rule in existence with regard to the matter: but Earl Dudley had taken
such an active part in forwarding the interests of the various institutions in the
city that the Council might well afford to make a new rule, or at least depart from
the old ope, to express the gratification they felt that one for whom they entertained
such a high respect should be about to take a step which they hoped would be pro-
ductive of the highest happiness to himself. He thought it desirable to propose
that an address of congratulation on his marriage be presented to Earl Dudley by
the Worcester Town Council, the address to be drawn up by the Mayor, the Sheriff,
Aldermen Hill and Lea, and Mr. Walter Holland. He (the Mayor) did not
contemplate that there should be any formal presentation of the address, but tha
as the Earl would be passing through Worcester in company with his bride about
the 7th December, and that if he could be induced to drive round near the Guildhall,
that would be, he thought, a suitable opportunity for presenting the address.”
Let us pray fervently that the Earl may be induced to drive round
near the Guildhall. If he can’t, one trembles to think of the conse-
quences— Worcester weeping, and refusing to be comforted—the
Mayor in hysterics, and Padmore prostrated ! Eor Padmore, who
writes M.P. after his name, as well as Alderman before it, trumps the
Mayor. He has been spoken to by the Earl—nay caught poaching
by him—
“Alderman Padmore, M.P., said he rose to second the resolution with great
pleasure, and more especially for one reason, which was that some time ago he (the
speaker) happened to be poaching on Earl Dudley’s estate—(laughter)—when the
Earl caught him in the very act. His Lordship was not only kind and lenient to
him, but notwithstanding he knew that he (Alderman Padmore) had no certificate
—(laughter)—invited him to kill anything on his estate. He thought such conduct
required recognition, and he therefore begged most cordially to second the motion.
(Laughter and applause.)
“ The motion was carried unanimously.”
To be caught poaching by a Lord! and without a certificate, too!
And to be invited by a real Earl to kill anything on his estate ! Oh,
ecstasy untold! Oh, bliss ineffable! We cordially agree with Alder-
man Padmore, M.P. Such conduct does require recognition !
Be it hereby recognised accordingly. Let us bow down and do our
kotow reverently—and proclaim our credo, in the_ name of the
DuDLEY-worshippers of Worcester, “ Magna est Snobbishness et proeva-
lebit."
LITERARY JOTTING.
Bacon lived at Ham House. The writer of the Elegy m a Country
Churchyard, when he came to London, always stopped at Gray’s Inn.
A Question of Turned Heads.—How would the Negro women
look if they used Golden Hair Wash to dye their woolly heads yellow P
December 2, 1865.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARJVARI.
NOBS AND SNOBS.
Poor Earl Dudley!
Not for his broad acres, not for all his fine houses, not for all his
coal and his iron, not for all the pearls and diamonds and lace with which
his new Countess was glorified in the eyes of Jenkins, would we stand
to be steamed with the incense and pelted with the oblations of British
Snobbery, as he has been for the last week or two, only because he has
gone and got married!
We have spoken of Jenkins, but his hymeneal raptures are matters
of course. What is better worth Punch's notice is the industrious
kotowing of the Bumbledom of the Black Country to their biggest
Black Diamond. When one thinks of what that Black Country is, its
miles of sooty, cindery, slaggy desolation by day ; its lurid horror by
night; its foul and tottering cottages, with their untaught, ill-clad,
un-kempt and uncared-for swarms; its drunkenness, its misery, and its
vice ; its brutal men, its unsexed women, its children stunted in mind
and body by premature toil, it is a comfort to fall back on the one
set-off to all this—the splendours of Whitley and Himley, the glory of
Earl Dudley’s wedding, the costliness of the parures and trousseaux,
the magnificence of the presents, the ineffable exquisiteness of
the millinery.
Here is the oasis in that Black Country desert, wherein the snobbery
of the region can disport itself, and do homage, and grovel, and lick the
shoes of its big man, to its snobbish heart’s content.
Worcester lies within the orbit of the Dudley sun, and its Council
has been sucked in by the all-absorbing influence which draws on to
its knees the Snobbery of that portion of the Midlands. The Mayor of
Worcester, in calling the attention of the Council to the awful, yet
intoxicating, subject, observed that—
“ The Council were noted, he was happy to say, for not paying court to the nobles
of the county simply because they were noblemen, and he should be sorry if the
year of his Mayoralty were to be marked by any departure from the rule, if there
was any rule in existence with regard to the matter: but Earl Dudley had taken
such an active part in forwarding the interests of the various institutions in the
city that the Council might well afford to make a new rule, or at least depart from
the old ope, to express the gratification they felt that one for whom they entertained
such a high respect should be about to take a step which they hoped would be pro-
ductive of the highest happiness to himself. He thought it desirable to propose
that an address of congratulation on his marriage be presented to Earl Dudley by
the Worcester Town Council, the address to be drawn up by the Mayor, the Sheriff,
Aldermen Hill and Lea, and Mr. Walter Holland. He (the Mayor) did not
contemplate that there should be any formal presentation of the address, but tha
as the Earl would be passing through Worcester in company with his bride about
the 7th December, and that if he could be induced to drive round near the Guildhall,
that would be, he thought, a suitable opportunity for presenting the address.”
Let us pray fervently that the Earl may be induced to drive round
near the Guildhall. If he can’t, one trembles to think of the conse-
quences— Worcester weeping, and refusing to be comforted—the
Mayor in hysterics, and Padmore prostrated ! Eor Padmore, who
writes M.P. after his name, as well as Alderman before it, trumps the
Mayor. He has been spoken to by the Earl—nay caught poaching
by him—
“Alderman Padmore, M.P., said he rose to second the resolution with great
pleasure, and more especially for one reason, which was that some time ago he (the
speaker) happened to be poaching on Earl Dudley’s estate—(laughter)—when the
Earl caught him in the very act. His Lordship was not only kind and lenient to
him, but notwithstanding he knew that he (Alderman Padmore) had no certificate
—(laughter)—invited him to kill anything on his estate. He thought such conduct
required recognition, and he therefore begged most cordially to second the motion.
(Laughter and applause.)
“ The motion was carried unanimously.”
To be caught poaching by a Lord! and without a certificate, too!
And to be invited by a real Earl to kill anything on his estate ! Oh,
ecstasy untold! Oh, bliss ineffable! We cordially agree with Alder-
man Padmore, M.P. Such conduct does require recognition !
Be it hereby recognised accordingly. Let us bow down and do our
kotow reverently—and proclaim our credo, in the_ name of the
DuDLEY-worshippers of Worcester, “ Magna est Snobbishness et proeva-
lebit."
LITERARY JOTTING.
Bacon lived at Ham House. The writer of the Elegy m a Country
Churchyard, when he came to London, always stopped at Gray’s Inn.
A Question of Turned Heads.—How would the Negro women
look if they used Golden Hair Wash to dye their woolly heads yellow P