Punch/Volume 147/Issue 3811/Retrospective
[The armbone of a prehistoric lion has been discovered in Fleet Street during the excavations for the new offices of "The Daily Chronicle." Remains of other prehistoric animals were found some years ago near the same spot.]
Reader, when last you went down Fleet (Wait half-a-second. Thank you.) Street, And gazed upon it from your seat, Perched on a motor-bus, Did you, I wonder, guess that there, In ages long ago, the bear Contended for the choicest lair With the rhinoceros?
Where now the expectant taxis prowl, And growlers, still surviving, growl, And agonised pedestrians howl, Seeing the traffic skid, There lions roamed the swampy glade, There the superb okapi brayed, And many a mighty mammoth made Whatever noise it did.
It pleases me to pause and think That where to-day flows printing-ink All sorts of beasts came down to drink Clear waters from a spring. I like to reconstruct the scene; I feel existence must have been, Before the rotary machine, A more delightful thing.
I like to think how, westward bound, Tigers pursued their prey and found The Strand a happy hunting ground, Seeking tit-bits by night. Reader, will you come there with me When London lies asleep? Maybe Their phantoms still prowl stealthily Down by the Aldwych site.