On the 15th March, 1882, at one of the London Ballad Concerts, Mr. Santley sang, for the first time, a patriotic song, written by Alfred Tennyson, the music composed by Mr. C. V. Stanford. This song was announced with much ceremony as a new work, whereas it was simply an abbreviated, and somewhat modified, arrangement of a poem in five verses, entitled Hands all Round, which had appeared in the Examiner in 1852, over the signature Merlin. The song did not arouse any enthusiasm, and is now only memorable for the offence its chorus gave to the temperance party. The first verse is quoted to illustrate the parodies:—
"First pledge our Queen, my friends, and then
A health to England, every guest;
He best will serve the race of men
Who loves his native country best!
May freedom's oak for ever last,
With larger life from day to day;
He loves the present and the past
Who lops the moulder'd branch away.
Hands all round! God the traitor's hope confound!