But I will sit beside the fire, And put my hand before my eyes, And trace, to fill my heart’s desire, The last of all our Odysseys. The quiet evening kept her tryst: Beneath an open sky we rode, And mingled with a wandering mist Along the perfect Evenlode. The tender Evenlode that makes Her meadows hush to hear the sound Of waters mingling in the brakes, And binds my heart to English ground. A lovely river, all alone, She lingers in the hills and holds A hundred little towns of stone, Forgotten in the western wolds. * * * * * I dare to think (though meaner powers Possess our thrones, and lesser wits Are drinking worser wine than ours, In what’s no longer Austerlitz) That surely a tremendous ghost, The brazen-lunged, the bumper-filler, Still sings to an immortal toast, The Misadventures of the Miller. The vasty seas are hardly bar To men with such a prepossession; We were? Why then, by God, we _are_-- Order! I call the club to session! You do retain the song we set, And how it rises, trips and scans? You keep the sacred memory yet, Republicans? Republicans? You know the way the words were hurled, To break the worst of fortune’s rub? I give the toast across the world, And drink it, “Gentlemen: the Club.” CONTENTS. PAGE DEDICATORY ODE v PREFACE xv I. INTRODUCTORY 1 II. LAMBKIN’S NEWDIGATE 14 III. SOME REMARKS ON LAMBKIN’S PROSE STYLE 22 IV. LAMBKIN’S ESSAY ON “SUCCESS” 28 V. LAMBKIN ON “SLEEP” 37 VI. LAMBKIN’S ADVICE TO FRESHMEN 42 VII. LAMBKIN’S LECTURE ON “RIGHT” 51 VIII. LAMBKIN’S SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE 58 IX. LAMBKIN’S ADDRESS TO THE LEAGUE OF PROGRESS 72 X. LAMBKIN’S LEADER 83 XI. LAMBKIN’S REMARKS ON THE END OF TERM 88 XII. LAMBKIN’S ARTICLE ON THE NORTH-WEST CORNER OF THE MOSAIC PAVEMENT OF THE ROMAN VILLA AT BIGNOR 95 XIII. LAMBKIN’S SERMON 104 XIV. LAMBKIN’S OPEN LETTER TO CHURCHMEN 114 XV. LAMBKIN’S LETTER TO A FRENCH FRIEND 123 XVI. INTERVIEW WITH MR. LAMBKIN 132 PREFACE