als' being established in 1824. Two years previously
Parliament had passed what is known as Martin's Act (1822),
which was the first step taken by this or any other country
for the protection of animals. In Scene 7 of _Sketches by Boz_
there is a mention of 'the renowned Mr. Martin, of costermonger
notoriety.' The reference to the New Police Act reminds us
that the London police force was remodelled by Mr. (afterwards
Sir Robert) Peel in 1829. Hence the date of the song will be
within a year or two of this.

Mr. Reginald Wilfer (_O.M.F._) owed his nickname to the
conventional chorus of some of the comic songs of the
period. Being a modest man, he felt unable to live up to the
grandeur of his Christian name, so he always signed himself
'R. Wilfer.' Hence his neighbours provided him with all sorts
of fancy names beginning with R, but his popular name was
Rumty, which a 'gentleman of convivial habits connected with
the drug market' had bestowed upon him, and which was derived
from the burden--

Rumty iddity, row dow dow,
Sing toodlely teedlely, bow wow wow.

The third decade of the nineteenth century saw the coming of the
Christy Minstrels. One of the earliest of the so-called 'negro'
impersonators was T.D. Rice, whose song 'Jim Crow' (_A.N._) took
England by storm. It is useless to attempt to account for the
remarkable popularity of this and many another favourite, but
the fact remains that the song sold by thousands. In this case
it may have been due to the extraordinary antics of the singer,
for the words certainly do not carry weight (see p. 146).

Rice made his first appearance at the Surrey Theatre in 1836,
when he played in a sketch entitled _Bone Squash Diabolo_, in
which he took the part of 'Jim Crow.' The song soon went all
over England, and 'Jim Crow' hats and pipes were all the rage,
while _Punch_ caricatured a statesman who changed his opinions
on some question of the day as the political 'Jim Crow.' To
this class also belongs the song 'Buffalo Gals' (see p. 10).

Amongst the contents of the shop window at the watering-place
referred to in _Out of the Season_ was

every polka with a coloured frontispiece that ever was
published; from the original one, where a smooth male
or female Pole of high rank are coming at the observer
with their arms akimbo, to the 'Ratcatcher's Daughter.'

This last piece is of some slight interest from the fact that
certain people have claimed that