When, in December 1844, the music critic and journalist J. W. Davison (b. 1813) penned his apologia, he was well aware that the reputation of The Musical World, whose editor he had been for some eighteen months, was in danger of being sacrificed on an altar of frivolity, ‘violent language and directly personal remarks’. He continued:

That Davison should have felt it necessary to perform such an undertaking says much about the rumbustious nature of early Victorian journalism. At a time when freedom of expression, provided that it was not blasphemous, treasonable, or seditious, was prized, opinions were voiced and reputations traduced with little or no concern for those affected. Davison had himself been far from blameless. With a liking for satire, he had appropriated from Punch the character of ‘Jenkins’, a fictitious journalist supposedly on the staff of The Morning Post, and grafted his identity onto that of Charles Lewis Gruneisen (b. 1806), the Post's music critic. To Davison, who had aspirations as both composer and pianist, Gruneisen's lack of musical expertise and background as a foreign and war correspondent made him quite unqualified to write about music.