Long ere the whirr, and buz, and rush
Became a harvest sound,
Or monsters trailed their tails of spikes,
Or ploughed the fallow ground.
Our sparks flew from the flint and steel,
No lucifers were known,
Snuffers with tallow candles came
To prune the wick o’ergrown.
Hands did the work of engines then,
But now some new machine
Must hatch the eggs, and sew the seams,
And make the cakes, I ween.
I remember, I remember,
The homely village school,
The dame with spelling book and rod,
The sceptre of her rule.
A black silk bonnet on her head,
Buff kerchief on her neck,
With spectacles upon her nose,
And apron of blue check.
Ah, then were no inspection days,
No standards then were known,
Children could freely make dirt pies,
And learning let alone!
Those Sundays I remember too,
When Service there was one;
For living in the parish then
Of clergy there were none.
And oh, I can recall to mind,
The Church and every pew;
William and Mary’s royal arms
Hung up in fullest view.
p. 46The lion smiling, with his tongue
Like a pug dog’s hung out;
The unicorn with twisted horn
Brooding upon his rout.
Exalted in the gallery high
The tuneful village choir,
With flute, bassoon, and clarionet,
Their notes rose high and higher.
They shewed the number of the Psalm
In white upon a slate,
And many a time the last lines sung
Of Brady and of Tate.
While far below upon the floor
Along the narrow aisle,
The children on then benches sat
Arranged in single file
And there the clerk would stump along
And strike with echoing blow
Each idle guilty little head
That chattered loud or low.
Ah! I remember many things,
Old middle-aged, and new;
Is the new better than the old,
More bright, more wise, more true?
The old must ever pass away,
The new must still come in;
When these new things are old to you
Be they unstained by sin.
So will their memory be sweet,
A treasury of bliss
To be borne with us in the days
When we their presence miss.
Trifles connected with the love
Of many a vanished friend
Will thrill the heart and wake the sense,
For memory has no end!
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