PART I … “And a security for such as pass on the seas upon their lawful occasions.”–Navy Prayer. Disregarding the inventions of the Marine Captain, whose other name is Gubbins, let a plain statement suffice. H.M.S. Caryatid went to Portland to join Blue Fleet for manoeuvres. I travelled overland from London by way of Portsmouth, […]

Private Copper’s father was a Southdown shepherd; in early youth Copper had studied under him. Five years’ army service had somewhat blunted Private Copper’s pastoral instincts, but it occurred to him as a memory of the Chalk that sheep, or in this case buck, do not move towards one across turf, or in this case, […]

I caught sight of their faces as we came up behind the cart in the narrow Sussex lane; but though it was not eleven o’clock, they were both asleep. That the carrier was on the wrong side of the road made no difference to his language when I rang my bell. He said aloud of […]

“It’s a funny thing, this Marconi business, isn’t it?” said Mr. Shaynor, coughing heavily. “Nothing seems to make any difference, by what they tell me–storms, hills, or anything; but if that’s true we shall know before morning.” “Of course it’s true,” I answered, stepping behind the counter. “Where’s old Mr. Cashell?” “He’s had to go […]

PART I I sat down in the club smoking-room to fill a pipe. * * * * * It was entirely natural that I should be talking to “Boy” Bayley. We had met first, twenty odd years ago, at the Indian mess of the Tyneside Tail-twisters. Our last meeting, I remembered, had been at the […]

The day that I chose to visit H.M.S. Peridot in Simon’s Bay was the day that the Admiral had chosen to send her up the coast. She was just steaming out to sea as my train came in, and since the rest of the Fleet were either coaling or busy at the rifle-ranges a thousand […]

“Book–Book–Domesday Book!” They were letting in the water for the evening stint at Robert’s Mill, and the wooden Wheel where lived the Spirit of the Mill settled to its nine hundred year old song: “Here Azor, a freeman, held one rod, but it never paid geld. Nun-nun-nunquam geldavit. Here Reinbert has one villein and four […]

“Let us now praise famous men”– Men of little showing– For their work continueth, And their work continueth, Greater than their knowing. Western wind and open surge Tore us from our mothers; Flung us on a naked shore (Twelve bleak houses by the shore! Seven summers by the shore!) ‘Mid two hundred brothers. There we […]

See you the ferny ride that steals Into the oak-woods far? O that was whence they hewed the keels That rolled to Trafalgar. And mark you where the ivy clings To Bayham’s mouldering walls? O there we cast the stout railings That stand around St. Paul’s. See you the dimpled track that runs All hollow […]

They shut the road through the woods Seventy years ago. Weather and rain have undone it again, And now you would never know There was once a road through the woods Before they planted the trees. It is underneath the coppice and heath, And the thin anemones. Only the keeper sees That, where the ring-dove […]

I’m just in love with all these three, The Weald and the Marsh and the Down countrie; Nor I don’t know which I love the most, The Weald or the Marsh or the white chalk coast! I’ve buried my heart in a ferny hill, Twix’ a liddle low shaw an’ a great high gill. Oh […]

The Weald is good, the Downs are best— I’ll give you the run of ’em, East to West. Beachy Head and Winddoor Hill, They were once and they are still, Firle, Mount Caburn and Mount Harry Go back as far as sums’ll carry. Ditchling Beacon and Chanctonbury Ring, They have looked on many a thing, […]

I was very well pleased with what I knowed, I reckoned myself no fool– Till I met with a maid on the Brookland Road, That turned me back to school. Low down–low down! Where the liddle green lanterns shine– O maids, I’ve done with ‘ee all but one, And she can never be mine! ‘Twas […]

Strangers drawn from the ends of the earth, jewelled and plumed were we. I was Lord of the Inca race, and she was Queen of the Sea. Under the stars beyond our stars where the new-forged meteors glow Hotly we stormed Valhalla, a million years ago. Ever ‘neath high Valhalla Hall the well-tuned horns begin […]

Now we are come to our Kingdom, And the State is thus and thus; Our legions wait at the Palace gate— Little it profits us, Now we are come to our Kingdom! Now we are come to our Kingdom, And the Crown is ours to take– With a naked sword at the Council board, And […]

I closed and drew for my love’s sake That now is false to me, And I slew the Reiver of Tarrant Moss And set Dumeny free. They have gone down, they have gone down, They are standing all arow– Twenty knights in the peat-water, That never struck a blow! Their armour shall not dull nor […]

(A.D. 1066) I followed my Duke ere I was a lover, To take from England fief and fee; But now this game is the other way over– But now England hath taken me! I had my horse, my shield and banner, And a boy’s heart, so whole and free; But now I sing in another […]

(A.D. 1200) Of all the trees that grow so fair, Old England to adorn, Greater are none beneath the Sun, Than Oak, and Ash, and Thorn. Sing Oak, and Ash, and Thorn, good sirs (All of a Midsummer morn)! Surely we sing no little thing, In Oak, and Ash, and Thorn! Oak of the Clay […]

Spring begins in Southern England on the 14th April, on which date the Old Woman lets the Cuckoo out of her basket at Heathfield Fair–locally known as Heffle Cuckoo Fair. Tell it to the locked-up trees, Cuckoo, bring your song here! Warrant, Act and Summons, please. For Spring to pass along here! Tell old Winter, […]

Take of English earth as much As either hand may rightly clutch. In the taking of it breathe Prayer for all who lie beneath. Not the great nor well-bespoke, But the mere uncounted folk Of whose life and death is none Report or lamentation. Lay that earth upon thy heart, And thy sickness shall depart! […]