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But dearest of all recollections — 



Old days now recalled to my view — 

 Are those when we hunted together 



In the land of the Badminton Blue : 

 The days of John Bayly and Triller ; 



(What tales of their prowess are told !) 

 The days of the Merchant and Bobber; 



The day ere grey Beckford was foaled ; 



When the Unicorn stood by the Lion, 



And Little was there on Champagne ; 

 When the Colonel was great on Blue Pill, 



And Clark swore by Saffron and Jane ; 

 When Methuselah carried the Marquis 



Thro' the longest and hardest of days ; 

 When Alderley's gallant old owner 



Bode the first of his wonderful greys. 



Unwelcome, perhaps, to the fair ones, 



Is the tale of what seasons have flown, 

 Since they first donned the Badminton button. 



And the " goddesses " yet were unknown : 

 Lady Blanche was the rising Diana, 



And one figure remembered will be. 

 That skimmed o'er the country on "Sunbeam," 



With Jack Savile in front on B. B. 



"Woe worth," wrote Sir Walter, "the chase," 



When he sung of the hunting that kills ; 

 Woe worth forty minutes' full pace. 



From Allen Grove up to the hills. 

 'Twas my gallant old horse's last efiTort — 



'Twas a mixture of pleasure and pain. 

 In that gallop where G-race's " blaze chesnut " 



Jumped walls, and ne'er jumped them again. 



