A Schoolmaster's Diary: Being Extracts from the Journal of Patrick Traherne, M.A., Sometime Assistant Master at Radchester and Marlton.Traherne, Patrick
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A Schoolmaster's Diary: Being Extracts from the Journal of Patrick Traherne, M.A., Sometime Assistant Master at Radchester and Marlton.
Traherne, Patrick
Traherne, Patrick, 1885-1917
The joys of the Coronation were not for us. Some of the Corps went
down to London to line the streets, but the rest of us went into camp
and had a gorgeous time. We spent the time bathing and washing up, and
celebrating Coronation festivities in all the villages near by. We made
speeches and helped to feed myriads of children: we led processions and
drank vast quantities of liquid at other people's cost. Money seemed to
be poured out in honour of George V.
All the same I was lonely because most of the boys I require by me
to complete my happiness were in London lining the streets. However,
we were not parted long and we are now just back from the Windsor
Review. That is the most impressive ceremony in which I have ever
taken part. All the Public Schools and Universities paraded before the
King in Windsor Great Park. It was a sweltering hot day and we were
as tired as could be after our long journey and the fatigue of camp,
but no one fell out or fainted except some of the Oxford and Cambridge
contingents. Good for the schools! It was wonderful to get down south
again, if only for one day, to see real trees, civilized people, pretty
girls, the Thames, respectable houses built for comfort, culture and
leisure. We spent all the long hours in the train in rushing up and
down the corridors "debagging" people, "scrumming" forty or fifty
unfortunates into one carriage and then leaping on the top of them. No
wonder we were tired. How any windows remained unbroken is a miracle to
me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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