"THREE SCORE AND TEN"

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 37, 8 April 1942, Page 8

"THREE SCORE AND TEN"

Oh for a facile and accurate pen To record recollections preserved in one's pen When well past the milestone of three score and ten Way back in the seventies, eighties and nineties When ladies wore bustles and long linen nighties And ladies alone were permitted to see— Chaste costumes for secluded dips in the sea Then Disraeli, Salisbury Beresford and Bobs To expand our Empire were bossing big jobs At widowed Victoria's great jubilee Dick Seddon declared New Zealand would be Britain's best market, and a home o'er the sea For all who would venture to God's own country The first gent of Europe the gay Prince of Wales Notorious for telling post prandial tales Of Goodewood and Ascot when Archer was up To famous diplomats invited tot sup. Edward the 7th laid gaiety down And wore with distinction England's old crown There ne'er was a monarch more loyal than he To his beloved England the land of the free. George the sth and Queen Mary the burden did share Of royalty's task through four years of warfare During following years they strove to increase And strengthen the bullworks of a world's peace Prince Edward the charming then donned the crown But fate intervened and Edward stood down Still retaining a charm absolutely his own George the 6th and his Queen then reigned in his stead Ne'er did so heavy a crown press his head Of a King or a Queen loved more dearly- bj r all For so bravely responding to Old England's call For courageeus oaidunance by great and by small Big Ben's still ringing from shore to shore* To hearten th® free-born all the world o'er Whose united object in lands far and near Is to conqucr cr die for all they hold dear. , H. SERGAXT.