ABSTRACT
The convalescent youth took to writing as a pastime-farces, burlesques, plays, and comic verse. Nothing remains of these early compositions except Ye Hole in Ye Walle, a 'Legend of Walthamstowe Abbey' after the style of the Ingoldsby Legends, which was published as a pamphlet in 1860 and later reprinted. The Preface runs trippingly enough:
On pseudo-saints, Ignatian divines, The following verses may appear hard Lynes; Such thin-skinned gentlefolk will hardly fail To vote such railing quite "beyond the pale," Even in this "reading for the road and rail." If any take offence, not mine the sin, it Was his amusement that my muse meant in it. But long preambles damn a work; one looks For curtailed prefaces in dogs-eared books. With this excuse, then, if your views it meets, I'll cut the preface, you can cut the sheets.
