resolved there should arise
Church worthy of your enterprise,
You’ve laid foundation broad and deep,
And showers of blessings may you reap.
Craft of King Hiram and Saint John
Have come to lay the corner stone,
At the call of our Grand Master9
Who was invited by your pastor,
With silver trowel all so fair
He laid foundation on the square,
May you be blessed with Christian love,
And we all meet in Lodge above.
A Civic Holiday Trip
Lines on a civic holiday trip on the Grand Trunk, to Toronto, August, 1882. Address to Mr. Hodge, conductor of Caledonian games at Ingersoll.
From Ingersoll, on Canadian Thames,
We come to greet mine host of the St. James,
This being our town’s civic holiday;
Yet we remember twenty-fourth of May,
For then at our Caledonian games
He did loud proclaim the victors’ names.
We came in part to contribute
To our town’s mechanics’ institute,
Who got up this grand excursion
Where each one has his own diversion.
Some did remain at Burlington Bay,
While we to Toronto did wend our way,
And came to see this presentation
To stalwart son of Scottish nation.
Robert Fleming Gourley
Robert Fleming Gourley was a graduate of St. Andrews’, University, Scotland. When he was crossing Niagara river, after being exiled, he asked for a brush to brush Canadian dust off his feet. Perhaps it will please some to see a little sketch of him, as he was a public man and gloried in that he had the honor of being sentenced both by the Canadian Government and the British. Exiled from Canada, he became a champion of popular rights in England. Lord Brougham opposed his schemes and he whipped His Lordship in the lobby of the House of Commons, for which breach of privilege of house he wad sentenced by the House. He preserved the whip as a precious relic in his house at Mt. Elgin. [We presume it would not have been prudent to have allowed an able agitator to disturb the country when Canada was but in its infancy, just entering the second quarter of the present century.] Mr. Gourley owned several farms in Dereham and thought he would like to represent Oxford in 1858, after an absence from Canada of about one third of a century. Every one thought he was too old but the old gentleman being in exuberant spirits, having just been married as he said to a young wife, he would prove to them all there was life in the old dog yet.
There came to Oxford Robert Gourley,
In his old age his health was poorly;
He was a relic of the past,
In his dotage sinking fast;
Yet he was erect and tall
Like noble ruined castle wall.
In early times they did him impeach
For demanding right of speech,
Now Oxford he wished to represent
In Canadian parliament,
But him the riding did not honor,
But elected Doctor Connor.
Odd Fellowship in Woodstock
Impromptu lines delivered at the opening of Maple Leaf Encampment, Woodstock, in the year 1883, in connection with Odd Fellows Lodge there. Olive Branch is the subordinate Lodge.
Well tell a tale, it shall be brief
It is of rise of Maple Leaf,
From noble Olive Branch it sprung,
And its good deeds shall yet be sung;
This Encampment, though in its youth,
Glories in friendship, love, and truth
Of all our lodges yet the chief
May be this youthful Maple Leaf;
Built of good timber, it doth launch
Well worthy of the Olive Branch,
And though it only is a shoot
We hope that it will take deep root,
And soon be vigorous Maple tree
In Canada so broad and free.
And may its usefulness ne’er cease
Sprung from the Olive Branch of peace,
But comfort brothers in distress,
Widows and orphans it will bless,
And console them in their grief,
Protected by the Maple Leaf.
Poor travellers in the wilderness
They oft do suffer great distress,
But may no pilgrim get rude shock
Sojourning here in Woodstock.
We look in vain for our Past Grands,
Now scattered over many lands,
Now some o’er the wide world do rove,
And some have joined Grand Lodge above,
But ever since Father Adams’ fall
We are dependent creatures all,
Though man is weak yet he may join
With others strength for to combine.
The illustration it is grand,
Five Oddfellows in one hand,
And yet they all united stand,
Each finger hath a different length,
Each finger varies in its strength,
Each one is weak, but a firm fist,
You can scarcely break or twist,
’Tis same with members of a lodge,
United them you cannot budge.
Then let us linked with pleasant chain,
Friendship, love and truth maintain,
And aid our brothers in distress,
The widows and the orphans bless,
Then let each lodge strive all it can,
Both Oxford and Samaritan
To aid distressed brother man,
Extending influence for good,
And universal brotherhood.
Do you unto this world belong,
To cheer us merrily with song?
Are you mortal like ourselves,
Or are you, charming little elves,
Sent from some higher sphere
To bliss and comfort us while here?
May you be spared from earthly woes
And each blossom like the rose.
On grassy amphitheater
Spectators sit, to view the war
’Mong bold contestants on the plain,
Where each doth strive the prize to gain;
And when the little boys and girls
In highland dress and waving curls,
From London, danced the Highland fling;
The whole mass did their praises sing;
And at the concert did applaud
The little charmers Blanch and Maud.
Victoria Park and Caledonian Games
Lines on the naming of Victoria Park, on Queen’s Birthday, 1881. The ceremony was performed by Thomas Brown, Esq., Mayor of the town.
Come one, come all, to Scottish games
On the banks of Canadian Thames;
You’ll find that ’tis most pleasant way
You can enjoy the Queen’s Birthday.
In future years it will be famed
The day whereon the park was named,
With its boundry great extended
And nature’s charms sweetly blended.
Full worthy of the poet’s theme
Is hill and dale, and wood and stream,
And glittering spires, and
