AT THE PORTALS OF THE WEST COUNTREE.

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, Volume VIII, Issue 1, 1 April 1903, Page 17

AT THE PORTALS OF THE WEST COUNTREE.

Picture to yourselves a cloudless summer morning, and a New Zealand ship— the old " Tongariro/' let us say — coming smoothly to her port in Plymouth Harbour. Across all the leagues of ocean she has

?01. VIII.— No. 1.-3.

come, from England's farthest colony, the " Britain of the South Seas/ and this perfect morning she is slipping to anchor 'neath Plymouth cliffs. Soon her passengers will pass through Plymouth streets, and, perchance, will look up to the statue of that great sea-captain, who was one of the first to open for England the gates of that New World whence they come, and they will feel, perhaps, that Francis Drake stands there to give a welcome to all Englishmen from over-

I think most of the Tongariro's passengers will recall these lines, and that their hearts will throb as they look upon that memorial to Sir Francis Drake ; recalling to them, ' as it will, so much of the fascination and romance of some of the most momentous times in England's history. And recalling, too, so much of the first springs of their own lifetimes ; days when they bent over the charmed pages of Charles Kingsley's masterpiece, " Westward Ho I" wliicli many will remember

seas; the Colonists who are the ever-increasing harvests of old British venture. And some among them will remember how dearly the great Captain loved this Plymouth Harbour, in whose exquisite beauty they are to-day, for the first time, rejoicing . "Drake, he's in his hammock an' a thousand mile away — (Captain, art tha' sleepin' tha' below?) — Drake, he's in his hammock till the Great Armadas come, But he's dreamin' all the time o' Plymouth Hoe ! "

was dedicated to George Augustus Selwyn, Bishop of New Zealand, 1855.

For New Zealand's proudly borne title of " the Britain of the South " is not unmerited. Her founders have taught their children to dwell upon, and cling with love and reverence to, their share in the traditions of the dear Home-land ; and 1 do not think you could find anywhere else a colonial people who keep that sentimeat quite so intact, or who guard it more jealously. Away inland, beyond Plymouth,

lies Buckland Abbey, now the ?eat of Sir Francis Fuller-Eliott-Drake, and in its hall hangs the great Admiral's old war-drum. Legend says that if ever England is in dire need the drum may be taken down and beaten, and that Drake will in spirit return, and once more defeat his country's enemies ! I believe that during the dark days of the Transvaal Campaign this tradition was remembered in the West Country ; but I think that we colonial folk may please ourselves with the conceit that we have struck in another nail to support the histori-

shall awake may be that of the trumpet which shall herald the last great roll-call — when the last battle will have been fought, and War, by land or sea, shall be no more. John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough, was born in 1650, at Aske, in Devonshire, the home of his maternal grandfather, Sir John Drake.