Thanks. I didn't know this poem by John Betjeman. Later on:

But spare the bald young clerks who add
The profits of the stinking cad;
It's not their fault that they are mad,
They've tasted Hell.

It's not their fault they do not know
The birdsong from the radio,
It's not their fault they often go
To Maidenhead.

http://www-cdr.stanford.edu/intuition/Slough.html