And go back to the Ojibways!"
Punch, March 12, 1881.
A jeu d'esprit somewhat in the nature of The Rejected Addresses has recently been published by Mr. George Dryden, of Lothian Street, Edinburgh. It is entitled "Rejected Tercentenary Songs, with the comments of the Committee appended." Edited by Rolus Ray.
It will be remembered that the Edinburgh University has just been celebrating its Tercentenary, and the contents of this amusing little sixpenny pamphlet consist of the Poems supposed to have been sent in, by matriculated students of the University, in competition for a prize of Ten Guineas, offered by the Tercentenary Committee for the best song in honour of the occasion.
It contains numerous Latin and Macaronic verses, a long parody of Walt Whitman, one of Gilbert, and two of Longfellow, which I venture to quote. The first is incomplete:—
"I stood in the quad at midnight,
As the bells were tolling the hour;
And the moon shone o'er the city,
Behind the Tron Kirk tower."