LAMBKIN’S REMAINS BY H. B. _Author of “The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts,” etc_ PUBLISHED BY THE PROPRIETORS OF THE _J.C.R._ AT J. VINCENT’S 96, HIGH STREET OXFORD 1900 _Lambkin on “Sleep” appeared in “The Isis.” It is reprinted here by kind permission of the Proprietors. The majority of the remaining pieces were first published in “The J. C. R.”_ [_All rights reserved._] DEDICATION TO THE REPUBLICAN CLUB I AM DETERMINED TO DEDICATE THIS BOOK AND NOTHING SHALL TURN ME FROM MY PURPOSE. DEDICATORY ODE. I mean to write with all my strength (It lately has been sadly waning), A ballad of enormous length-- Some parts of which will need explaining.[1] Because (unlike the bulk of men, Who write for fame and public ends), I turn a lax and fluent pen To talking of my private friends.[2] For no one, in our long decline, So dusty, spiteful and divided, Had quite such pleasant friends as mine, Or loved them half as much as I did. * * * * * The Freshman ambles down the High, In love with everything he sees, He notes the clear October sky, He sniffs a vigorous western breeze. “Can this be Oxford? This the place” (He cries), “of which my father said The tutoring was a damned disgrace, The creed a mummery, stuffed and dead? “Can it be here that Uncle Paul Was driven by excessive gloom, To drink and debt, and, last of all, To smoking opium in his room? “Is it from here the people come, Who talk so loud, and roll their eyes, And stammer? How extremely rum! How curious! What a great surprise. “Some influence of a nobler day Than theirs (I mean than Uncle Paul’s), Has roused the sleep of their decay, And decked with light their ancient walls. “O! dear undaunted boys of old, Would that your names were carven here, For all the world in stamps of gold, That I might read them and revere. “Who wrought and handed down for me This Oxford of the larger air, Laughing, and full of faith, and free, With youth resplendent everywhere.” Then learn: thou ill-instructed, blind, Young, callow, and untutored man, Their private names were----[3] Their club was called REPUBLICAN. * * * * *