Anonymous

Metropolitan Melodies - No. 1

In The British Magazine, January to June 1830.

The Regent's Park, the Regent's Park!
Shall mountain, mead, and dale,
That long have been the chosen scene
Of each romantic tale -
Shall these be still the favourite views
That bards and artists mark?
Or shall this rhyme become sublime,
And sing the Regent's Park?
[...]

On Grecian or Italian shores
Some seek the mouldering pile;
And others walk to make in chalk
A drawing of the Nile.
Yet here's a rare and rich canal
Whose source is far less dark;
And as for Rome, oh! Stay at home,
And paint the Regent's Park
[...]

I love the smaller circle's walk,
And, while the verdure shields
One's face from sun, to hunt for fun
In those Elysian fields.
To see the nursery-maid attract
Some coxcomb of a clerk;
To hear him praise her air, her stays,
And then the Regent's Park [...]

A total of 15 verses making gentle fun of the Park. The source of the Nile, alluded to in the second verse, was still a mystery.