Date: 12/09/2004 19:35 GMT

Has anyone an earlier date than 1900 for the use of the expression
'the tube'?
I believe the 'Daily Mail' referred to the 'Two-penny Tube' on 4
August 1900; but was the Underground called 'the tube' before then?

The Gilbert & Sullivan operetta "Patience" (first performed in April 1881)
originally included reference in Act II to:

"A Chancery lane young man-
A Somerset House young man,-
A very delectable, highly respectable
Three-penny-bus young man!"

By 1900, when D'Oyly Carte restaged "Patience", some sources suggest he had
become a "two-penny tube young man". It's not often a transport query veers off
in this kind of direction I'll agree, but I'm sure there's some group of G & S
buffs out there who track every change of libretto with the same fervour as
railway enthusiasts record changes in locos and rolling stock. I wonder if they
can provide an answer?