forded the assembly the purest
delight.

The name of this singer was Mr. Bedford, though there was also
a Mr. Buckingham in the Vauxhall programmes of those days. There
are at least four songs, all of them lengthy, though not to the
extent Dickens suggests, which bear on the subject. They are:

1.--'All the World's a Stage,' a popular medley written by
Mr. L. Rede, and sung by Mrs. Kelley in the _Frolic
of the Fairies_.

2.--'Paddy McShane's Seven Ages,' sung by Mr. Johnstone at
Drury Lane.

3.--'The Seven Ages,' as sung by Mr. Fuller (eight very
long verses).

4.--'The Seven Ages of Woman,' as sung by Mr. Harley.

You've heard the seven ages of great Mister Man,
And now Mistress Woman's I'll chaunt, if I can.

This was also a very long song, each verse being sung to a
different tune.

Some of these songs are found in a scarce book called
_London Oddities_ (1822), which also contains 'Time of Day,'
probably the comic duet referred to in _The Mistaken Milliner_
(_S.B._). This sketch was written in 1835 for _Bell's Life
in London_, the original title being _The Vocal Dressmaker_,
and contains an account of a concert (real or imaginary) at the
White Conduit House. This place of entertainment was situated in
Penton Street, Islington, near the top of Pentonville Road, and
when Dickens wrote his sketch the place had been in existence
nearly a hundred years. Early in the nineteenth century it
became a place of varied amusements, from balloon ascents
to comic songs. Dickens visited the place about 1835. The
titles of some of the pieces he mentions as having been sung
there are real, while others (such as 'Red Ruffian, retire')
appear to be invented.

Of a different kind is the one sung by the giant Pickleson,
known in the profession as Rinaldo di Vasco, a character
introduced to us by Dr. Marigold.

I gave him sixpence (for he was kept as short as he
was long), and he laid it out on two three penn'orths
of gin-and-water, which so brisked him up that he sang
the favourite comic of 'Shivery Shakey, ain't it cold?'

Perhaps in no direction does the taste of the British public
change so rapidly and so completely as in their idea of humour
as depicted in the comic song, and it is unlikely that what
passed for humour sixty years ago would appeal to an audience
of the present day. The song here referred to had a great
though brief popularity. This i