In 1842 Queen Victoria became the first monarch to ride in a car pulled by a locomotive. A failed assassination attempt on her life as she rode about in the royal horse-powered carriage a month earlier might have been her prompt.

Her footmen rode standing near the soot stack up front
Among cut flowers the Queen followed in a railcar with a loo
She looked out the window and raised her lorgnette
A grimy commoner was staring in - their eyes met
At that magic moment both simultaneously knew
That kings, queens, and commoners, would one day be few.


GORILLA GRABBING