So here is the end of our first book of limericks, no doubt one of the earliest imitations of Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense, if Arthur Deex’s date c. 1860 is correct (the only reference I could find is from a Publishers’ Weekly issue of 1890). The title would become quite common in the following years.

Sir Harry Smith Parkes (1828 - 1885) was a 19th century British diplomat who worked mainly in China and Japan.