The Herald lives in cloister grey;
He lives by clerkly rules;
He dreams in coats and colours gay,
In _argent_, _or_ and _gules_;
He blazons knightly shield and banner
In dim monastic hall,
And in a grave and reverend manner
He earns his bread withal.
Were I a herald fair and fit
So featly for to limn
As though I'd learnt the lore of it
Among the seraphim,
I'd leave the schools to clerkly people
And walk, as dawn begins,
From steeple unto distant steeple,
And paint the signs of inns.
_The Dragon_, as I'd see him, is
A loving beast and long,
And oh, the _Goat and Compasses_,
'Twould fill my soul with song;
_The Bell_, _The Bull_, _The Rose and Rummer_,
Such themes should like me still
At Yule, or when the heart of Summer
Lies blue on vale and hill.
Let others' blazonry find place
Supported, scrolled with gold,
A glowing dignity and grace
On honoured walls and old;
And let it likewise be attended
In stately circumstance
With mottos writ o' Latin splendid
Or courtly words of France;
But I would paint _The Golden Tun_
And others to my mind,
And mellow them in rain and sun,
And hang them on the wind;
And I would say, "My handcraft creaking
On this autumnal gale
Unto all wayfarers is speaking
In praise of rest and ale."
Then bless the man who puts a sign
Above his wide door's beam,
And bless the hop-root, fruit and vine,
For still I dream my dream,
Where, as the flushing East turns pinker
And tardy day begins,
I take the road like any tinker
And paint the signs of inns.
* * * * *
"INSTANT DEMAND FOR WARNINGS.
"MAYORS OF LONDON MOVING."
_Evening News_.
They ought to set a better example.
* * * * *
"Certain people seem to have misread the statement last week
that flour would be reduced 1s. 11/2d. that flour would be
reduced to 1s. 11/2d. but that that that flour would be reduced
to 1s. 111/2d. but that amount or somewhere about it would be
taken off the former price."--_Rossendale Free Press_.
There ought to be no misunderstanding after this.
* * * * *
"At such close quarters were attackers and attacked that to
have used grenades would manifestly have been equally dangerous
to both. So, after a brief pause to collect the means, our men
began to pelt the Huns with bottles filled with water. Apparently
the enemy thought this was some new form of 'frightfulness,'
for they speedily threw down their arms and tossed up their
hands."--_Daily Telegraph_.
Our contemporary, while rightly applauding the resourcefulness of our
bombers, might have given the Germans credit for their remarkable feat
of acrobacy.
* * * * *