When athletes are weary and hushed is the riot, When launches have vanished and house-boats are gone, When Henley once more is delightfully quiet-- 'Tis soothing to muse on the "Red Lion" Lawn! When the swans hold their own and the sedges scarce shiver-- As sweet summer breezes most tunefully sigh-- Let us laze at the ruddy-faced Inn by the River, For Henley is restful in dreamy July!
FAREWELL, O farewell to the Holiday Season! (Thus murmured a Minstrel just back from the sea.) I'm glad to return unto rhyme and to reason; In London once more I'm delighted to be!
Ah! sweet were the days in the Upper Thames reaches, How happy the doing of nothing at all! And sweet, too, the flavour of ripe sunny peaches, That dropped in our hands from the Rectory wall.
But long shall I cherish, through dreary December, The thought of that even we drifted away; The twilight, the silence, I long shall remember, The flash of the oar and the perfume of hay.
And still, when "_My Queen_" the street-organ is playing, Or "_Patience_" is blown by cacophonous bands, I smile on the discord, I nod to the braying, And muse with delight upon Scarborough Sands.
The young laughing maids, with their salt-sprinkled tresses, Let artfully down on their shoulders to dry; I see, on the Spa, in their pretty pink dresses: Maud, Winnie, and Connie, and Daisy, and Di.
Nor did Cook and his _coupons_ a moment forget me; My _passeport_ was _visé_ the length of my flight; While _Murray_ and _Bradshaw_ did aid and abet me. And Coutts with the circular notes was all right.
Farewell--when at bedtime I sink on my pillow I dream of my toil up the snow-covered steep, While mules, _vetturini_, and boats on the billow, And polyglot waiters embitter my sleep!
Ah, me! oft at night how I painfully worry-- And think where on earth I have possibly been?-- O'er towns, half forgotten, I saw in a hurry, And ghosts of the "lions" I ought to have seen!
And now, when the Club becomes cheerful and crowded, And men are returning all hearty and brown; When rooms with the vesper tobacco are clouded-- 'Tis doubly delightful to get back to town!
Farewell, O farewell, for dear London is pleasant-- No longer I feel inclination to roam-- I think, as I stir up the coals incandescent, I'm happy indeed to be once more at home!