Nowadays no one would
have read the originals, much less be able to imitate them. My
mother had a commonplace book into which she had copied the
cleverest of these skits, and Landseer illustrated it charmingly
in pen-and-ink for her.
Any one reading the novels of the commencement of the nineteenth
century must have noticed how wonderfully popular practical jokes,
often of the crudest nature, then were. A brutal practical joke
always seems to me to indicate a very rudimentary and undeveloped
sense of humour in its perpetrator. Some people with paleolithic
intellects seem to think it exquisitely humorous to see a man fall
down and hurt himself. A practical joke which hurts no one is
another matter. All those privileged to enjoy the friendship of
the late Admiral Lord Charles Beresford will always treasure the
memory of that genial and delightful personality. About thirty
years ago an elderly gentleman named Bankes-Stanhope seemed to
imagine that he had some proprietary rights in the Carlton Club.
Mr. Bankes-Stanhope had his own chair, lamp, and table there, and
was exceedingly zealous in reminding members of the various rules
of the club.
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