The contributor may be George A. Cape, Jr., secretary to the Lambeth Baths and Wash Houses Co.; author of Baths and Wash Houses, 1854; co-author, with W. G. Harrison, of The Joint Stock Companies Act, 1856. Cape's pamphlet on baths and wash houses describes the Lambeth establishment and gives suggestions for the erection and management of such establishments. It preaches the virtue of "simple soap and water" in "improving the health and morals of the lowly and indigent" and in combatting disease. It describes the crowded, filthy hovels of the poor as the breeding place of fever and plague, and warns that "the pestilence ... that is bred in a hut, may spread to the palace". The preface to Cape's pamphlet is dated December 1 1853. The poem assigned to Cape in the Office Book appeared in H.W. on December 10. It seems likely that Cape's earnest preaching of sanitary reform overflowed into rhyme.

Author: Anne Lohrli; © University of Toronto Press, 1973