’The Exhibition and Foreigners’ [ballad] ([1851])

Well Neighbour, can you tell me the meaning of the Great Exhibition they are so looking forward to behold in Hyde Park next May? Tell, to be sure I can. Don’t you knew there is to be every body in the world and everything in the world, and all out of the world, aye, and everywhere else ? The devil there is, Aye, and the devil there ain’t! There is to be Noah’s ark, and David’s Harp, Solomon’s Temple, the Tower of Babel, the Den of Lions, the Whale who swallowed Jonah, ¹ Queen Anne’s Farthing, ² and the man who struck Mick Buckley! ³