University of Virginia Library

When I suggested to the poet a few prefatory words to the second thousand of this First Series, he suggested playfully that I should write one myself as publisher, so here it is:

It is said, especially in the French lines, that after many encounters a man in white has been seen succouring the wounded. The French call him “The Comrade in White.”

It is said that a French private soldier, colloquially “un poilu” of volatile disposition, bought a small Bible one day, soon after the war began, on one of the Quais at Paris; and that, when in subsequent danger and fear, he opened it in the trenches, almost inadvertently he found the words: “Be strong, fear not,” and was impelled thereby to do his duty. The Legion of Honour is usually designated merely as “The Legion.”

The three pictures sought to be depicted in this poem are the expression of the strong feeling raised in me by what I have recently heard and seen.

The first is a general picture of a condition of affairs known to all of us—the picture of men willingly sacrificing life, or suffering mutilation, for pure and selfless love of country. The second was inspired by a very recent occurrence at a London Hospital, where the visiting of the wounded has lost its early popularity as a Sunday duty. The third picture describes the disgust with which I, having occasion of late to visit a fashionable hotel in the South of England, witnessed the extravagant living of well-dressed, well-to-do people, amidst the poverty around, and at a time when poor people are being urged to economise.

A quotation which, I think, peculiarly appropriate to the national circumstances of his country at this, his third centenary.

The Brotherhood Federation was much cheered by hearing of Brotherhood gatherings in the trenches, and the following hymn was written by me in response to a special request for a hymn which could be sung both at the meetings at home, and at those in the trenches, and be one more proof to our brothers at the front that they are all, ever and always, in our loving memory. Of set purpose I used the familiar common metre so that the words would lend themselves to many tunes long much loved, and at the Brotherhood connected with the Marylebone Presbyterian Church, London, “Belmont” has been employed, Sunday by Sunday, for several months with marked acceptance.

Whatever view may be taken about War, and, personally I agree with Tolstoi both as to its horror and its inherent futility, nothing but contempt ought to be felt for the smug hyprocrisy which would condemn selfless courage, even if, sometimes, mistaken. Very early in life I stayed at this most interesting spot, during what I thought, then, to be the permanent ascendency of “The Manchester School” as it was called, or “the peace-at-any-price party,” and wrote the stanzas which follow:—

Whatever view may be held as to the taking of alcohol in normal circumstances, few, one would suppose, would justify, on moral grounds, its being served out, neat, just before deadly combat, to men, mostly young, and many of whom are, unfortunately, totally unacquainted with its effects.

The famous hymn, sung at a Children's Service, brings visions of the Trenches.

A crippled soldier speaks.

[Written at the request of my friend, Mr. Charles Vernon, for March 4th, 1918, and recited by him].

Written in 1913 at the request of my friend, Mr. William Miles, and given by him at his recitals.

It is a fortunate circumstance, even for the imperishable and world-wide renown of Nelson, that it is enshrined in two such masterpieces of English prose as the Lives by Robert Southey, and by Admiral Mahan, of the American Navy. If the advisability of allusion in this ballad to certain incidents in Nelson's career be questioned, it may, at least, be said, that such allusions are an inseparable part of both the biographies aforenamed, right up to the very end. The metaphor of the “feet of clay” in one of the stanzas is taken from a Biblical passage (the book of Daniel, chapter ii. verse 33). The phrases “Nelson,—the faithful sailor's friend,” and “Nelson, the just, and kind,” are no mere generalities. The touching anecdote respecting the “faithful sailor” can be read in the second volume of Admiral Mahan's work, page 360; and why Nelson was “just” and “kind,” i.e. humane, is set forth at pages 374 and 381 of the same narrative. Owing to Nelson's battle-scheme,

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In reference to the line “Bold Hardy come again” it may be said that the epithet “Bold” is used advisedly, as no other epithet adequately describes Flag-Captain Hardy from the time of Nelson receiving his death-wound to that Admiral's death. For it must be recollected that he would not relinquish the command to Vice-Admiral Collingwood, and his conduct placed Hardy in much difficulty. Hardy visited twice his striken commander and life-long friend lying in the cockpit of his flagship, and it was on the latter occasion that the pathetic occurrence mentioned took place.

In my opinion it is a striking testimony to the unity of America and Great Britain in essentials, that Nelson's most satisfying biographer should be a distinguished American officer. For, great as are the merits of Southey, he has not the fulness of detail, or of accuracy, possessed by Admiral Mahan. The latter has not only the immeasurable advantage of writing in the temper of a later age, when evidence could be more readily and more convincingly sifted, but has, also, much wider knowledge. In very early life I knew intimately the son of a man who had served under Nelson during his last seven years, and, consequently, had been in the Victory at Trafalgar. I was never weary of the old man's stories, and for this, and other reasons, have always taken a deep interest in the events, memorable or otherwise, of the first Napoleonic period.