A couple more moments from ‘The Idler’ of 1892. Another of the magazine’s modern ‘Choice Blends’ – the creation of a composite photograph from individual pictures. This one contains a neat joke. The image on the right is Lord Halsbury who served as the British Lord Chancellor in 1885, from 1886-1892 and again from 1895-1905. The photograph in the left shows the great comic actor, singer, composer and author George Grossmith (1847-1912). Grossmith created the great comic roles in a number of Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas. In 1882 he had a created a significant success as the Lord Chancellor in ‘Iolanthe.’ Hence the charming composite above.
This little verse seems to me to capture the changing time a little too. It begins with the Victorian sentimentality we might expect from the date but with a neat, modern twist at the end.
The Solitary Reader 