Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Exhibitions, Architecture

    Directed at the designer of the building housing the International Exhibition, this parody of 'The House that Jack Built' is offered 'to the London Stereoscopic Company, as a subject for a series of views "to be sold in the building"'. It describes the interior of the building, notably 'the Tro-phies, / That jammed the Nave' and the 'Canute-Commissioners, hoping to brave / The onslaught of Crinoline's closely-pent wave'. The rhyme is annotated with footnotes which explain the meaning of some of the lines and, in many cases, offer some very critical remarks about the design of the building.