312 MEMORIES OF MEN AND HORSES 



respect whatever altered from what actually happened 

 in my presence : 



"St Stephen's Review," i$th June 1889. 

 THE AILESBURY DUCK 

 Aw IDYLL OF THE MOATED GRANGE 



A dream ; a flash of old-world fantasies, 

 When the fresh earth nourished a noble race 

 Of men who knew the worth of womanhood, 

 And women who were ever womanly. 

 Oh, Chivalry ! Oh, dim and distant days, 

 When beauty's smile was all the warrior's prize, 

 And death was courted for a lady's sake ! 

 Must we then darken to our dismal doom 

 With nought save memories to gild the past ? 



It may not be ; thank Heaven it is not so ; 



For he, most notable of England's Peers, 



The Lord of Ailesbury, has stemmed the flood 



Of this ingrate and base material age : 



Alone unarmed upon the foughten field, 



His Queen of Beauty he has bravely won 



And borne her homeward, as her own true knight. 



For so it fell that Dorothea fair, 

 Whom some called Dolly, for the love of her, 

 Held court with Ailesbury at Maidenhead, 

 And gaily passed the witching hours away 

 With tales of him the Knight of Abington, 

 Whose folly pledged him to a woman's faith, 

 With costly issue. But anon there came 

 One known as Riley, and abode with them, 

 Devising evil. He in other years 



