TO “MARTIN ROSS”
(After reading “Irish Memories.”)
Two Irish cousins greet us here
From Bushe “the silver-tongued” descended,
Whose lives for close on thirty year
Were indistinguishably blended;
Scorning the rule that holds for cooks,
They pooled their brains and joined their forces,
And wrote a dozen gorgeous books
On men and women, hounds and horses.
They superseded Handley Cross;
They glorified the “hunting fever”;
They purged their pages of the dross,
While bettering the fun, of Lever;
With many a priceless turn of phrase
They stirred us to Homeric laughter,
When painting Ireland in the days
Before Sinn Fein bewitched and “strafed” her.
With them we watched good Major Yeates
Contending with litigious peasants,
With “hidden hands” within his gates,
With claims for foxes and for pheasants;
We saw Leigh Kelway drop his chin—
That precious English super-tripper—
In shocked amazement drinking in
The lurid narrative of Slipper.
Philippa’s piercing peacock squeals,
Uttered in moments of expansion;
The grime and splendour of the meals
Of Mrs. Knox and of her mansion;
The secrets of horse-coping lore,
The loves of Sally and of Flurry—
All these delights and hundreds more
Are not forgotten in a hurry.
Yet the same genial pens that freight
Our memories with joyous magic
Gave us the tale of Francie’s fate—
So vulgar, lovable and tragic;
Just to the land that gave them birth
They showed her smiling, sad and sullen,
And turning from the paths of mirth
Probed the dark soul of Charlotte Mullen.
Alas! the tie, so close, so dear,
Two years ago death rent asunder;
Hushed is the voice so gay and clear
Which moved us once to joy and wonder;
Yet, though they chronicle a loss
Whose pang no lapse of time assuages,
The spirit of brave “Martin Ross”
Shines like a star throughout these pages.
Here in her letters may one trace
The generous scorn, the gentle pity,
The easy unaffected grace,
The wisdom that was always witty;
Here, mirrored in a sister soul,
One sees the comrade, strong yet tender,
Who marched unfaltering to her goal
Through sacrifice and self-surrender.