Unpublished manuscript poem, titled 'The lament of a gyp', humourously recounting the 'troubles of a Cambridge man, a careful hardworked gyp' on the disappearance of Bushell on a mountaineering trip.

From Bushell's own collection, and possibly in his hand. On both sides of a piece of light-blue paper, 27 x 22 cm. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with four labels from previous mounting (one with small closed tear) on the reverse. A delightful item, casting light on the social history of Victorian Cambridge. Thirty-six lines in couplets. Written from the point of view of Bushell's 'gyp' (college servant). Begins 'Oh! listen to me now all ye who give anyone the slip. | To the troubles of a Cambridge man, a careful hardworked gyp.' The story goes that Bushell ('one of my young gentlemen') leaves, saying he is 'only going to make a call a little way from town': 'And sure he couldn't stay, without so much as a nightgown) | I lit his fire, boiled his kettle, & set him out his tea, | And waited then as patiently as anything could be'. Night comes, and as Bushell has not returned, the gyp 'left his fire bright & clear & his moderator burning'. The gyp goes to bed, and dreams that Bushell has been murdered, and that 'I had his body found, | And that he had such a funeral, everybody was in tears, | Lamenting the brave Captain of the Johnian Volunteers.' The next morning he finds no one in Bushells room, and exclaims 'This is a go, I'll ask Mr Hadley now'. Bushell, who has been mountaineering, appears 'on Saturday at one o'clock'. The last four lines read 'But thinks I to myself I do, this comes of foreigneers, | And this is what they learns abroad, when they are mountaineers, | They dispense with the comfort & necessities of life, | And he'll never think of them no more till he gets himself a wife.' a "gyp" was a college servant. Bushell received his B.A. in 1861.