If bards tell true, and hist’ry’s page
Is right,--why, then, I would engage
To tell you all about the age,
When Cæsar used to speak;
When dandy Britons painted,--were
Dress’d in the skin of wolf or bear,
Or in their own, if none were there,
Before they wore THE LEEK.
Ere Alfred hung in the highway,
His chains of gold by night or day;
And never had them stol’n away,
His subjects were so meek.
When wolves they danc’d o’er field and fen;
When austere _Druids_ roasted men;--
But that was only now and then,
Ere Welshmen wore THE LEEK.