CURRENT LITERATURE.
Sedbergh School Songs. Written and Illustrated by R. St. John Ainslie. (Jackson, Leeds.)—School-songs, however spirited, are likely to lose by being removed from their surroundings. The place, the viva vox, vivacissitisa, we may say, when it comes from the vigorous lungs of a chorus of boys, cannot go with them into type. Still, Mr. Ainslie's vigorous verse will keep something of its charm, as his skilful pencil contrives to give us something of Sedbergh scenery and of the humours of boy-life. Here is a stanza from a "Football Song":- -' Charge like an elephant, ran like a stag, arapple and bug like a bear!
dee', cool, never sent', keep warm, never flag, Play fearlessly, Browns, t•lay fair!
Though bespet ered with mud, and bedabbled with blood,
And never a man of vou whole, Bear them along like the ltawtbey in flood,
Sweep them away to the goal!"
We must not omit the application:— " In the future afar there are goals for you still, There are fields for the men who can fight— Days when the game will seem all uphill, And days when the world will look bright : But keep a cool head beneath victor]s crown, And keep a brave heart if you lose ; And when you've been fitted with jerseys of brown,
You can never have fits of the blues."
This last is a happy play upon words. Here is a stanza from a cricket song, which gives one of the best of morals— You must leave four honoured self
In the abed, upon the shelf ;
For think about your average, but do your level beet; Keep your temper, and be jolly,
And away with melancholy,
And shut your mouth, and play the game, and never mind the rest.'
Schoolboys, and all who remember that they too have been in Arcadia, ought to be much obliged to Mr. Ainslie.
Previous page
