A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLD SCHOOL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1095, 24 February 1893, Page 12

A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLD SCHOOL.

Bi' Austin Dobson (Ballad of Beau Brocade, and other poems). Ho lived in tho past Georgian day,. When men were less inclined to say That 4 Timo Is gold, and overlay With time their pleasure; He held some land, and dwelt thereon— Where, I forget—tbe house is gone; His Christian name, I think, was John— His surname, Leisure. Ho lived so long ago, you see ! Men were untravelled then, but we, Like Ariel, post o’er land and sea With careless parting ; He found it quite enough for him To smoke his pipe in 4 garden trim,’ And watch, about the fi3h-tank’e brim, The swallows darting. Ho liked the well-wheel’s creaking tongue— Ho liked the thrush that stopped and sung— He liked the drone of flies among His netted peaches; He liked to vratch the sunlight fall Athwart his ivied orchard wall; Or pause to catch the cuckoo’s call Beyond the beeches. Not that his 1 meditating ’ rose Beyond a sunny summer doze; He never troubled his repose With fruitless prying. But held, as law for high and low, What God withholds no man can know, And smiled away inquiry so, Without replying.