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"THE SONG OF THE ROYAL WELSH…

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"THE SONG OF THE ROYAL WELSH FUSILIERS." A patriotic song under this title has just been issued, the words being by Mr. W. M. Roberts, M.A. (ap Elis Wyn o Wyrfai), and the music by Mr. Thomas Edwards, Brynteg, Parkgate-road, Chester, from whom copies may be had post free for 7d. each. The profits on the sale are to be given to the Reservists Widows' and Orphans' Fund, and there is little doubt the song will become popular in Wales. The words are ap- pended :— We've left Hobb's Point in Pembroke, and we throng South- ampton pier; While the transport lies awaiting, ev'ry gallant Fusilier Feels the fire of glorious ages in his inmost bosom glow Fire that hurled his Cymric fathers like a torrent on the foe. For we are the old British blood, like the mastiffs (I) our fathers bred We may die on the track, but nought can turn us back, As the path of glory we tread. Hold on out there, we're coming! We're somewhat late, 'tis true, But the boys that bear the Dragon are safe to pull you through.. The lads in kilts are Scotland's pride, and Patrick fights with glee; Our little Wales was Picton's land (2), and who more brave than he, And Picton's name shall fire our hearts when death-shots quickly fly Twas a Welshman led the Gordons on to victory at Dargai. For we are the old British blood, &c. The Boer boaits of Majuba, but we'll tame the Dutchman's pride, As brave Glendore (3) slew Flemish Boer on steep Plin- limmon's side. For the Dragon Red is flying, Standard of ten thousand fights, From the days of Arthur onward to the Alma's blood won heights For we are the old British blood, &e. We've left old Wales behind us, and we sail for Afric's shore, And many a gallant comrade, ne'er may see the homeland more, But the call to arms has sounded, soon we'll hear the battle cry, Forward then, "Advance the Dragon," Royal Welsh to win or die? For we are the old British blood, &c. N OTE3.-(I) The mastiff and the bulldog are the old British breed. The Ancient Britons exported those dogs, which were among the famous expor s of our island. (2) Colonel Matthias comes of an old Welsh family in South Wales like the heroic Picton. (3) Glendower with 120 Welshmen defeated 1,500 ancestors of the Boer on Plinlimmon. The Flemings were often used as mercenaries by the Normans in their Welsh wars, but the Welsh Majuba was somewhat rough on the Boer, a third of the Flemings being left dead on the mountain as the wild mountaineers cut through the midst of them. OUR MILITARY RESIDENT AT PRETORIA (?) Sir Charles Warren, who has been given the command of the Fifth Division of Bulier's army, and who is spoken of as likely to be appointed the first Military Resident of Pretoria, is by no means forgotten in London by those who can recollect the disturbances which took place in Trafalgar Square at the time he was the Chief Commissioner of Police. Warren's first expe- rience of South African campaigning(saysilf.J..P.) was in the Zulu War of 1877 to 1879. His know- ledge of Arabic, acquired at Jerusalem, led to his being attached to Lord Wolseley's first expe- dition to Exypt in 1882. Professor Palmer, who knew the Arabs of Sinai well, had been sent with a good sum of gold to win over their chiefs and frustrate a scheme of Arabi Pasha's in that direc- tion. Palmer was murdered, and then Warren had an exciting time in the mountains and deserts of Sinai hunting down the murderers. Two years later, while his old comrade, Wilso, was sharing in the dash for Khartoum, Warren was again employed at the other end of Africa. Boer raiders had been setting up little republics in Bechuana- land, and he was given the command of an expe- dition to turn them out. Majuba was then a recent event, and many expected that a fight in Bechuanaland would have been followed by a march on Pretoria, which was then defenceless. Warren had a splendid little force under his command. There were the Royal Scots, the 3rd Dragoons, some volunteer artillery—a nati ve contingent, and three fine regiments of mounted rifles, the first of which was the famous Metb- uen's Horse," under Lord Methuen. By a series of masterly manoeuvres, Warren forced the Boers to retire without firing a shot. It would have been easy to have brought on a fight, and Warren might have had the satisfaction of reporting three or four "battles" and victories, which would have brought the usual shower of promotions, decorations, and honours, with resulting popu- larity at home. Some of the carping critics of his appointment to a command in the present war are possibly the same men who cavilled at him for not having shot down the freebooters, picked a quarrel with the new Transvaal Government, and raided Pretoria. The bloodless campaign of 1884-85 has never been rightly appreciated. By most men it is forgotten. GAMES AND PASTIMES. Children are forgetting how to play (says E. R. Esler in the Leisure Hour). To realise this one has only to remember that between eight and nine hundred games enter into the social history of Merrie England, and then watch the pupils of a board school in recreation time, with their disjointed efforts at amusements, their unre- lated racings and shoutings, their perfunctory attempts at leap-frog and kindred sports. Foot- ball is very popular in boys' schools, and to be a successful cricketer is to attain the pinnacle of fame, but the village pastimes, the rhymings and rompings which were organised for children, and continued to maturity, are fast becoming obsolete. This is doubtless an inevitable result of modern developments, of the centralisation of town life and the waning prosperity of country districts. In towns there is time for play, but there is little room. Boys find space for peg-tops and marbles, but these are not held available for girls, who, if they do not sit down to eat their lunch or chat in the recess, find fun in the small Infringements of the rights of others. There is no person to direct the occupations of this period, and the children are as helpless in evolving pastimes for themselves as they would be if given a book in a foreign tongue and told to read it. Anything done in the direction of teaching the art of play is due to the goodwill of amateurs, young ladies having inaugurated, in Bermondsey and other poor districts of London, corps of volunteers who visit board-sohool playgrounds during recess, and endeavour to impart to the children a knowledge of active pastimes. It is to be hoped that this excellent work will be widely extended, until the play teacher becomes a regular member of the educational staff. I remember seeing a board- school girl of twelve set to play with two little children during a day's absence of their nurse. She was given every facility for amusing them, in the shape of toys, balls, battledore and shuttle- cock, and a spacious and unconventional garden, but, though anxious to quit herself creditably, and to earn the shilling she had been promised for the day's services, she could think of no means of diverting her proteges save by making faces at them. Naturally, this method did not prove popular. When she was sent home in disgrace in the afternoon, a friend came as a substitute. This little girl of about the same age had learned to drew, and by means of her art was able to render herself quite an acquisition apart from this, she would probably have been as much at a loss as her predecessor. Girls unversed in the art of play, when they become mothers in their turn, cannot transmit what they do not know, hence the dull life of many children of the poor, their occasional trend towards mischief from sheer idle-mindedness. Play is one of the children's rights, and knowledge of the art of play becomes ultimately a parental privilege.

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