AGES ago (as to-day they are reckoned)

I was a lone little, blown little fag:

Panting to heel when Authority beckoned,

Spoiling to write for the Uppingham Mag.!

Thirty years on seemed a terrible time then—

Thirty years back seems a twelvemonth or so.

Little I saw myself spinning this rhyme then—

Less do I feel that it's ages ago!

Ages ago that was Somebody's study;

Somebody Else had the study next door.

O their long walks in the fields dry or muddy!

O their long talks in the evenings of yore!

Still, when they meet, the old evergreen fellows

Jaw in the jolly old jargon as though

Both were as slender and sound in the bellows

As they were ages and ages ago!

O but the ghosts at each turn I could show

you!—

Ghosts in low collars and little cloth caps—

Each of 'em now quite an elderly O.U.—

Wiser, no doubt, and as pleasant—perhaps!

That's where poor Jack lit the slide up with

tollies,

Once when the quad was a foot deep in snow—

When a live Bishop was one of the Pollies * —

Ages and ages and ages ago!

Things that were Decent and things that were

Rotten,

How I remember them year after year!

Some—it may be—that were better forgotten:

Some that—it may be—should still draw a

tear...

More, many more, that are good to remember:

Yarns that grow richer, the older they grow:

Deeds that would make a man's ultimate ember

Glow with the fervour of ages ago!

Did we play footer in funny long flannels?

Had we no Corps to give zest to our drill?

Never a Gym lined throughout with pine panels?

Half of your best buildings were quarry-stone

still?

Ah! but it's not for their looks that you love

them,

Not for the craft of the builder below,

But for the spirit behind and above them—

But for the Spirit of Ages Ago!

Eton may rest on her Field and her River.

Harrow has songs that she knows how to sing.

Winchester slang makes the sensitive shiver.

Rugby had Arnold, but never had Thring!

Repton can put up as good an Eleven.

Marlborough men are the fear of the foe.

All that I wish to remark is—thank Heaven

I was at Uppingham ages ago!