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I was very nearly wrecked

Rounding Ireland's Eye;

But I swam, and here I am

High and dry and spry.

AD PLANCUM

LAUDABUNT alii claram Rhodon aut Mytilenen,
Aut Epheson bimarisve Corinthi

Moenia, vel Baccho Thebas vel Apolline Delphos

Insignes aut Thessala Tempe.

Sunt, quibus unum opus est intactæ Palladis urbem

Carmine perpetuo celebrare, et

15

AD MORLEIUM

SOME say 'twas in Midlothian, and some there be who

swear

I first beheld the moonlight in the wilds of county

Clare.

Some say 'twas Tory Island, and some have little doubt

'Twas either Tara famed for song, or Dublin famed for

stout.

Some back the Modern Athens, whose architecture's

grace

In all its 'virgin purity' in memory I retrace.

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'I know Edinburgh well; I knew almost every street and every corner when Edinburgh was in what I may call the

virgin purity of its architecture.'-Speech of Mr. Gladstone at the Council Chamber, Edinburgh, November 25, 1879.

Undique decerptam fronti præponere olivam.

Plurimus in Junonis honorem

Aptum dicet equis Argos ditesque Mycenas.

Me nec tam patiens Lacedæmon

Nec tam Larissæ percussit campus opimæ,
Quam domus Albuneæ resonantis

Et præceps Anio ac Tiburni lucus et uda

Mobilibus pomaria rivis.

Albus ut obscuro deterget nubila cœlo

Sæpe Notus neque parturit imbres

Perpetuos, sic tu sapiens finire memento

Tristitiam vitæque labores

Hall Caine would like to claim me for the Isle of Grand

Old Man,

And Labouchere's disposed to think I hail from the

Soudan;

While many a gallant Taffy is as sure as eggs can be

That from the house of Harlech I derive my pedigree.

But though unable to affirm that I have not been smitten

With all the disadvantages of being born a Briton,

In spite of strong inducements to emerge on alien earth I blush to own in Liverpool the background of my birth. But stay, I'll move the closure here.

Though, Morley, you and I

Were born and bred on English soil, 'neath England's

foggy sky,

Though wearied by your daily dose of endless Irish

stew,

Though Art is looking Yellow, and politics look blue,

C

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