Lays of the

 Hertfordshire Hunt

and other Sporting Verses

George Robins

Arthur L. Humphrey, London, 1912

Online copy

To an Old Hunting Diary

WITHIN a bookshelf richly stored with annals of the Chase,

A little tattered manuscript can claim an honoured place:

It tells of sport in Hertfordshire while thrice ten seasons ran,

And '94 completes the tale that '65 began.

Oh, dear dead hand that held the pen, lightly your task has sped

If you had known how eagerly your records would be read!

And thinking of those early days and how you played your part,

One wish, in all sincerity, is ever in my heart:

That I may serve the cause of Sport, as you before have done,

And wear the scarlet worthily, as should befit your son.

Our Friends the Farmers

LET the city-bred pessimist wear a long face,

And prove us (by figures) a decadent race,

Two things to the honour of England remain­

The thoroughbred horse and the old yeoman strain.

Then proudly may Hertfordshire hold up her head,

For five classic winners at Childwick were bred;

And for fair open dealing and genuine worth

The Hertfordshire farmer's the salt of the earth.

Our field through the season is never complete

If a score of staunch yeomen are not at the meet,

And when hounds mean business they're mostly in front-

The farmers who follow the Hertfordshire Hunt.

 

Then hundreds of others our sport never share,

For they haven't the time or the money to spare;

But the true sporting spirit they well understand,

And a red coat's a passport all over their land.

Good health and good markets I'd wish to them all,

If their holdings are large or their acreage small;

Good luck to their crops and good luck to their kine,

May their Aprils be moist and their Augusts be fine.

I've known them a lifetime, but hardly I met

A knave or a churl of their company yet,

Though, like every good man, they'd resent an affront-

The farmers who welcome the Hertfordshire Hunt.

 

Hunting folk, by your leave, I've a moral for you:

Be courteous, be careful, be generous too;

Shut gates and shun ewes, and, oh, never forget

'Ware beans all the time and 'ware seeds when it's wet.

Buy forage from farmers that hunters may eat

The oats that were trod by their galloping feet.

Put your hand in your pocket, and don't be afraid

When the Royal Benevolent asks for your aid.

So haply some day when misfortunes befall,

As they will in bad seasons the best of us all,

You may help in enduring adversity's brunt

Some farmer who welcomed the Hertfordshire Hunt.

Bulls Green

(A Lay of the Monday Country)

I'VE seen some long hunts and some very quick things

From Danesbury and Romerleys* and Wymondley Springs.

I've a mask on the wall there that catches my eye

Of a dog-fox from Dowdells that Knebworth saw die.

But for genuine hunting commend me, I pray,

To a meet at Bulls Green on a good scenting day.

 

The hard-riding youngster may, grumble and groan,

And hunger for fame and a cleft collar-bone;

But the joy of the woodlands for me never fades,

And the cry of the pack as they drive down the glades,

And when we're away on the Stapleford side

Young Sparks must stop talking and sit down to ride.

 

You may try Alexanders or trot to Priest Wood,

Widows Bushes or Bramfield, the same thing holds good,

You'll hear hounds give tongue as a matter of course,

And just watch the man on the big chestnut horse,

For his face is alight with a smile at the thought

That his coverts once more are proved staunch to the sport.

 

I am sick of the cant of political creeds,

Of speeches and articles nobody reads;

Of 'popular' measures that nobody likes,

Of die-hards and do-naughts and tariffs and strikes.

But a squire of broad acres who wears a red coat,

Whatever his views, is the man for my vote.

* Locally pronounced 'Umleys.'

DEATH FROM GAS POISONING

Captain George Upton Robins died on May 7 from the effects of gas poisoning received in action on May 5. He received his commission un the 2nd East Yorkshire Regiment from Oxford in May 1900. He served with the 5th Mounted Infantry during the second half of the South African War, and received the medal and clasp. He resigned his commission in 1903, but rejoined the 3rd Battalion of his old regiment as captain in February last. He was ordered to the front on April 22 and was attached to the 2nd Duke of Wellingtons Regiment. Captain Robins, who was married, was the only son of Mrs Upton Robins, of Delaport, Wheathampstead, Herts.

Times, May 26th, 1915

George Upton Robins, aged 36, was the son of George and Flora Upton Robins, of Wheathampstead, Herts; and husband of Beryl Robins, of The Cottage, Old Windsor, Berks. He is buried in the Railway Dugouts Burial Ground, (Transport Farm), Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

War Graves Commission