My Boy Hobby O.

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Title:     My Boy Hobby O.
Author: Lord Byron [More Titles by Byron]

[Another Version of "My Boy Hobbie O."]

To the Editor of the Morning Post.

Sir,--A copy of verses, to the tune of '_My boy Tammy_,' are repeated in literary circles, and said to be written by a Noble Lord of the highest poetical fame, upon his quondam friend and annotator. My memory does not enable me to repeat more than the first two verses quite accurately, but the humourous spirit of the Song may be gathered from these:--

1.

Why were you put in Lob's pond,
My boy, HOBBY O? (_bis_)
For telling folks to pull the House
By the ears into the Lobby O!

2.

Who are your grand Reformers now,
My boy, HOBBY O? (_bis_)
There's me and BURDETT,--gentlemen,
And Blackguards HUNT and COBBY O!

3.

Have you no other friends but these,
My boy, HOBBY O? (_bis_)
Yes, Southwark's Knight,[*] the County BYNG,
And in the City, BOBBY O!

[*] "Southwark's Knight" was General Sir Robert Thomas Wilson (1777-1849), who was returned for Southwark in 1818, and again in 1820; "County Byng" was George Byng, M.P. for Middlesex; and "Bobby" was Sir Robert Waithman (1764-1833), who represented the City of London in 1818, but lost his seat to Sir William Curtis in 1820. All these were advanced Liberals, and, as such, Parliamentary friends of Hobhouse.

4.

How do you recreate yourselves,
My boy, HOBBY O? (_bis_)
We spout with tavern Radicals,
And drink with them hob-nobby O!

5.

What purpose can such folly work,
My boy, HOBBY O? (_bis_)
It gives our partisans a chance
Watches to twitch from fob-by O!

6.

Have they no higher game in view,
My boy, HOBBY O? (_bis_)
Oh yes; to stir the people up,
And then to head the mob-by O.

7.

But sure they'll at their ruin pause,
My boy, HOBBY O? (_bis_)
No! they'd see King and Parliament
Both d--d without a sob-by O!

8.

But, if they fail, they'll be hanged up,
My boy, HOBBY O? (_bis_)
Why, then, they'll swing, like better men,
And that will end the job-by O!

PHILO-RADICLE. April 15, 1820."

[The end]
Lord Byron's poem: My Boy Hobby O.

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