THE WHITE CROSS ON THE HILL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 47, Issue 143004, 17 January 1921, Page 2

THE WHITE CROSS ON THE HILL.

~ j (Note. —lu a small village in tlie j Western Highlands of Scotland all the i able-bodied men enlis;ted ih one or J other of the kilted regiments, who suffered so badly during the war, notably at Loos and Neuve Chapel. Of the many who went few returned, and their kindred and fellow villages erected a cross to their memory as narrated below.) High on the summit of a heath-clad | brae, | A white cvoss towers, from base oi I granite grey. A solitary sentinel, his seen Par o’er' the purple hilis, and valleys green. It glistens in the sun’s reflected ray, And when the silver moonbeams softly play. The hardy senmhn, drifting on the wave Wonders who sleeps, within such lonely grave. The stranger, wand’ring o’er the mountain heath, Inquires the chieftain’s name Avho rests beneath. Come reader, let us climb the heath’ry fell. That we. ourselves the epitaph, may spell, Upon the marble rough, no sign we trace, Save on the granite basement, one wee space Is polished smooth. On that we may behold— Deep graven in the granite, rude and old— Two dates recorded, neither less nor more, The first, beheld the cannon’s hostileroar. The last saw peace proclaimed. f?o now we know, That storied ehieftvin •sl’umbcrs not below. The silent marble cross may still be seen, Keeping the memory of kinsmen green, Who left their humble toil, and native shore, At country’s call, returning sever more. No costly sculptured mausoleum, here Where maids and mothers might have , shed a tear, The peasant hand, untutored, did aspire, The callow youth, the bent grey bearded sire, Freely they gave their labour and their skill, To make and mould the white cvoss on the hill. —J.S., Masterton.