H. Cholmondeley-Pennell

“ The Nor'-wester squalls, that may chance to befall
At Cape Horn, as nauticals tell us;
And who,—oh who?—hasn't heard before
The dulcet tones of the infant roar?
Ear-piercing in at the drawing room door—
Down-bellowing, right thro' the nursery floor—
Like a hundred power bellows?
Alas! that the very rosiest wreath
Should ever be twined with a thorn beneath! ”

“ Many of our readers may find, besides these extracts, much that is clever and amusing in 'Puck on Pegasus.'"
"To be funny without being vulgar, to tell a story with gestures and yet not become a buffoon, to parody a poet and yet retain the flavour of his real poetry, to turn all the finest feelings of the heart into fun, and yet not to be coarse or unfeeling, is not granted by Apollo to every writer of humorous poems."... ”

“ Pennell is an excellent parodyist, an ingenious punster, a reviver and modifier of existing systems of fun, a vigorous worker of veins of humour not yet carried for enough."... "Of all the poems, we like best the Night Mail North, which has a singular weird power about it that takes a hold on the imagination.... Lord Jolly Green's Courtship is a well-written parody on a well-known poem of Mrs. Browning. Next best is, perhaps, the Sayers and Heenan Fight, a very vigorous imitation of Lord Macaulay's Coman Ballads. There is a great rush and gallop about the Derby Day ”

“ The wonderful wit and wisdom they boast,
* C. J. Hare, author of "Guesses at Truth."
When the time arrives they must give up the ghost,
Become quite phantasmagorical,—
And it's found at the last that they know as much
Of the secret of LIFE—as they do of Dutch—
Or, if a lame verse may borrow a crutch,
As was known by the Delphic Oracle.
Into being we come, in ones and twos,
To be kiss'd, to be cuffd, to obey, to abuse,
Each destined to stand in another's shoes
To whose heels we may come the nighest ”

“ Nor do we draw attention to the prevailing lightness of his muse in a spirit of condemnation, but rather of regret that the fine feeling and pathetic force manifested in the treatment of his two finest pieces/ the Night Mail North, and the Derby should have inspired him less frequently than mere gaiety of heart.... ”

“ Better writes she, certes, better than all women with—
out end:
Writes full darkly:—I defy all Bards alive or dead to
beat her
At a nubibustic stanza that no man can comprehend—
Her sublime afflatus had I, and her noble scorn of
rhyming,
I could write you something tallish—should make
Lindley Murray suffer,—
Would she "lean her spirit" o'er me, in this rhympho—
leptic climbing, **
I would paint My Courtship in a style would make
you stare, Old Buffer! ”

“ The rhythm and rugged swing of the Night Mail North, will give the reader a taste of Mr. Pennell's higher qualities."
SATURDAY REVIEW.
"—— Mr. Pennell's parodies and imitations are certainly above the average; they are at times, it is true, somewhat unequal, but there is a good deal of vigorous and healthy versification scattered throughout the volume."... "He has, moreover, studied with considerable advantage what is vulgarly termed the art of 'selling,' more properly described as a species of bathos. ”

“ The last line but one is powerful enough, and the best in the extract. There is plenty of poetry in railways and steam engines; and now that other mines of inspiration are growing somewhat exhausted, we cannot see why a new shaft should not be run in this direction. ”

“ The absurdity or satire is condensed generally into the last one or two lines. Mr. Pennell's stanzas headed Ah / Who, are among his most neat and amusing efforts of this character."... "No doubt the works of Hood have exercised a con—siderable influence on Mr. Pennell's versification; and in this school he may be fairly considered to have enrolled himself.
"The Derby Day is one of the most spirited sketches in this volume. The first three lines of our extract are excellent in their way, and have a fine healthy élan about them. ”

“ Pennell's 'Puck' is gay, rattling, and really clever, something in the Bon Gaultier style... full of fun... very smart."
BELL'S LIFE.
"An admirable drawing-room table brochure, and is certain to have a run."
ARMY AND NAYY GAZETTE.
"No one will be wearied with these verses.... We have seldom seen a book more completely suitable to a drawing-room table. Mr. Pennell has avoided Puck's sometimes offensive characteristic."
WELDON'S REGISTER.
"Mr. Pennell's 1 Puck on Pegasus' is one of the most amusing books of verse that we have fallen in with for many a day." ”

“ Many of the minor pieces-introduced in the first instance principally as vehicles for illustrations have been omitted, and others of a somewhat less trivial character substituted.
These alterations have, to a certain extent, modified the original design of the book, as conveyed by its title; but the unexpectedly flattering reception accorded to the two most serious poems, the "Night Mail North," and the "Derby Day," (the former haying been quoted at length in nine Reviews) led me to think that the change might not be disadvantageous. ”

“ Barrett Browning, whose lamented death has occurred since the above effusion first appeared in print; and I do so the more readily as I fear lest lines which were written in mere gaité de cour may possibly have been construed into a serious attack upon works, the general and undoubted merits of which I should be the first to acknowledge.
** "Nymphs of mountain, not of valley, we are wont to call the muses— "And in nympholeptic climbing, poets pass from mount to star." —Lady Geraldine's Courtship.
You know, Charley, 'where I saw my Marianne (first) in
Belgravia ”

“ If so be that noble Er-rls and infarior chur-rls
Has parties they don't love and daresen't bate,
Let them squeeze their purses to choke off the curses
And not foist their verses on the Public State! ”

“ Pennell, on the first available occasion, to disem—barrass himself here of the stock-in-trade 'lips of coral.' This passage would be materially improved by the omission. Again, in the Night Mail North, our author seems at home in his subject, and writes with considerable effect
"Tis a splendid race I a race against
Time,—
'The quivering carriages rock and reel,
Hurrah! for the rush of the grinding
steel!
And a thousand to one we win it. ”

“ LONDON REVIEW.
"...The popularity the work has already obtained, serves to show that the author's desi res have been crowned with success."
ORIENTAL BUDGET.
"Mr. Pennell has caught the spirit, as well as the style, of the different poets he imitates, while his lines have an elegance, mid a sly bo-peep sort of beauty.... The nick-names and mock climax in the song of In-the— Water, are in their way inimitable imitations.... The Author, however, gives proofs of far higher powers than those of mimicry." ”

“ Honey—
Moon'd scarce risen?—cutting, very,—and for me the
world is dead.
Slightly crushing to my hopes is this performance on the
ropes! Miss
Marianne suspensa scalis— (would t'were sus. per col.
instead!)
Ass that I was to be wedded!—Wonderfully wooden—
headed!
I'm a wiser man now, Charley,—certes, up to snuff—but
sadder,—
Oh, the fickle little Hindoo! Facilis descensus window!
Oh—that bell again! what's this?—— A Bill
OF £5 FOR THE LADDER!
LAY OF THE DESERTED INFLUENZED
(How you speak through your Dose)
O, doe, doe! ”

“ There standyth on the one tide of Dunoon, a hill or moleock of passynge steepnesse, and right slipperie withal; wherepon in gaye timet, ye youths and ye maidens of that towne do exceedingly disport themselvet and take their pleasaunce; runnynge both uppe and downe with great glee and to the much endangerment of their fair nekkes. ”