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Saturday 3 August 2013

A London Diversion (part two)

The Lord Mayor's Coachman continues on his way...

"Up to Old Bailey then he goes on to the Viaduct,
Up Holborn and High Holborn, there was nothing to obstruct,
When 'Now you're going up Oxford Street',  the Lord Mayor shouts again,
But John said 'I don't go that way! I go down Drury Lane.'
Down Drury Lane, Long Acre, and St. Martin's Lane he drives,
And thus to keep out of a street he artfully contrives,
And when they reach Trafalgar Square, the Lord Mayor in a pet,
Said, 'Dash my wig and barnacles! I think he'll do it yet.'

John nearly drove into the Strand, then stopped as if in doubt,
And the Lord Mayor said, 'I'm not surprised to find that you're put out.
Through Parliament Street you must go, or else cross Cockspur Street,
It's very hard, but still you must acknowledge your defeat,'
But John turned back and said, 'My Lord, I don't much think I shall,
If you ask me, I think you'll find I'm going down Pall Mall',
Then round the Square the coachman goes and drives at racing rate,
Goes through Pall Mall, into the Park to Buckingham Palace straight.

Chorus:
The Coachman gave the Lord Mayor, the Lord Mayor, the Lord Mayor,
The Coachman gave the Lord Mayor a curious kind of treat,
He drove him from the Mansion House, the Mansion House, the Mansion House
From Mansion House to Buck'n'am Palace and didn't go through a street."

Song by Harry Hunter and David Day, 1896
Historians of London  Stanley Rubinstein



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