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Transcriber's note.

Minor punctuation inconsistencies have been silently repaired. A list of
other changes made, can be found at the end of the book. For this text
version, diacritical marks that cannot be represented in plain text are
shown in the following manner:

[O] o with macron above (balcOny).

Mark up: _italics_




[Among the verses in this Collection may be found a few which have
previously appeared in a Volume, by the same Author, now out of print.]




THE LAZY MINSTREL




[Illustration]




  The Lazy
  Minstrel

  By
  J. ASHBY-STERRY

  _And while his merry Banjo rang,
  'Twas thus the Lazy Minstrel sang!_


  [Illustration]

  THIRD EDITION.


  LONDON
  _T. FISHER UNWIN_
  26 PATERNOSTER SQUARE
  MDCCCLXXXVII




_The Author reserves all rights of translation and reproduction._




  TO
  NINA, MARY, AND FLORENCE,
  THIS VOLUME IS
  INSCRIBED.




CONTENTS.


  LAZY LAYS:--                            Page

    Hambleden Lock                           3

    Spring's Delights                        6

    A Modern Syren                           9

    Regrets                                  12

    Hammockuity                              13

    My Country Cousin                        15

    A Common-Sense Carol                     18

    Saint May                                20

    A Canoe Canzonet                         23

    A Lover's Lullaby                        25

    The Tam O' Shanter Cap                   26

    A Street Sketch                          28

    A Tiny Trip                              29

    A Study                                  31

    Doctor Brighton                          33

    Lizzie                                   37

    A Marlow Madrigal                        38

    In Rotten Row                            41

    A Portrait                               43

    Symphonies in Fur                        45

    Drifting Down                            48

    Toujours Tennis                          50

    Tarpauline                               52

    The Kitten                               54

    In the Temple                            56

    An Unfinished Sketch                     59

    On Board the "Gladys"                    62

    Cigarette Rings                          65

    At Charing Cross                         67

    The Music of Leaves                      70


  CASUAL CAROLS:--

    In a Bellagio Balcony                    75

    A Riverain Rhyme                         78

    The Little Rebel                         80

    Canoebial Bliss                          83

    Rosie                                    85

    Skindle's in October                     86

    In My Easy Chair                         88

    Blankton Weir                            90

    Different Views                          95

    Two Naughty Girls                        97

    Couleur de Rose                          99

    In Strawberry Time                       102

    Number One                               104

    After Breakfast                          107

    In an Old City Church                    110

    A Little Love-Letter                     112

    Stray Sunbeams                           114

    Pearl                                    116

    A Nutshell Novel                         118

    The Pink of Perfection                   119

    The Impartial                            121

    A Traveller's Tarantella                 122

    In a Minor Key                           124

    A Shower-Song                            126


  THE SOCIAL ZODIAC:--

    January                                  131

    February                                 132

    March                                    133

    April                                    134

    May                                      135

    June                                     136

    July                                     137

    August                                   138

    September                                139

    October                                  140

    November                                 141

    December                                 142


  IDLE SONGS:--

    Mother o' Pearl                          145

    A Lay of the "Lion"                      147

    Jennie                                   150

    A Favourite Lounge                       151

    Spring Cleaning                          153

    Taken in Tow                             155

    Thrown!                                  157

    Baggage on the Brain                     160

    Haytime                                  163

    Pet's Punishment                         165

    The Baby in the Train                    167

    Miss Sailor-Boy                          170

    A Private Note                           171

    L'Inconnue                               173

    Fallacies of the Fog                     175

    The Merry Young Water-Girl               177

    A Secular Sermon                         179

    On the French Coast                      181

    At the "Lord Warden"                     183

    Bolney Ferry                             185

    Dot                                      188

    A Riverside Luncheon                     190

    Love-Locks                               192

    A Streatley Sonata                       196

    The Midshipmaid                          199

    A Pantile Poem                           201

    Henley in July                           204

    The Minstrel's Return                    207


  A SINGER'S SKETCH-BOOK:--

    Dover                                    213

    Chamouni                                 214

    Baveno                                   215

    At Table d'Hote                          216

    At Etretat                               217

    Homesick                                 218

    Skreeliesporran                          219

    A Christmas Carol                        220

    Sound without Sense                      222

    The Merry Month of May                   227

    Two and Two                              229

    A Shorthand Sonnet                       232

    In a Gondola                             233

    The Last Leaf                            236




_OVERTURE._


    _Within this Volume you will find,
    No project to "improve the mind"!
    No "purpose" lurks within these lays--
    These idle songs of idle days.
    They're seldom learned, never long--
    The best apology for song!
    Should e'er they chance to have the pow'r,
    To pass away some lazy hour--
    They'll serve all "purpose," it is true,
    The Minstrel ever had in view!_




LAZY LAYS.




HAMBLEDEN LOCK.

    A CAPITAL luncheon I've had at the "Lion,"
      I've drifted down here with the light Summer breeze;
    I land at the bank, where the turf's brown and dry on,
      And lazily list to the music of trees!
    O, sweet is the air, with a perfume of clover,
      O, sleepy the cattle in Remenham meads!
    The lull of the lasher is soothing, moreover,
      The wind whistles low in the stream-stricken reeds!
    With sail closely furled, and a weed incandescent--
      Made fast to a post is the swift _Shuttlecock_--
    I think you will own 'tis uncommonly pleasant
      To dream and do nothing by Hambleden Lock!

    See a barge blunder through, overbearing and shabby,
      With its captain asleep, and his wife in command;
    Then a boatful of beauties for Medmenham Abbey,
      And a cargo of campers all tired and tanned.
    Two duffers collide, they don't know what they're doing--
      They're both in the ways of the water unskilled--
    But here is the Infant, so great at canoeing,
      Sweet, saucy, short-skirted, and snowily frilled.
    I notice the tint of a ribbon or feather,
      The ripple of ruffle, the fashion of frock;
    I languidly laze in the sweet Summer weather,
      And muse o'er the maidens by Hambleden Lock!

    What value they give to the bright panorama--
      O, had I the pencil of Millais or Sandys!--
    The lasses with sunshades from far Yokohama,
      The pretty girl-scullers with pretty brown hands!
    Next the _Syren_ steams in; see the kind-eyed old colley,
      On the deck, in the sun, how he loves to recline!
    Note the well-ordered craft and its Skipper so jolly,
      With friends, down to Marlow, he's taking to dine.
    In the snug-curtained cabin, I can't help espying
      A dew-clouded tankard of seltzer-and-hock,
    And a plateful of peaches big babies are trying,
      I note, as they glide out of Hambleden Lock!

    A punt passes in, with Waltonians laden,
      And boatman rugose of mahogany hue;
    And then comes a youth and a sunny-haired maiden
      Who sit _vis-a-vis_ in their bass-wood canoe.
    Now look at the Admiral steering the _Fairy_,
      O, where could he find a much better crew than
    His dutiful daughters, Flo, Nina, and Mary,
      Who row with such grace in his trim-built randan?
    I muse while the water is ebbing and flowing,
      I silently smoke and serenely take stock
    Of countless Thames toilers, now coming, now going,
      Who take a pink ticket at Hambleden Lock!


SPRING'S DELIGHTS.

    _'Tis good-bye to comfort, to ease and prosperity,
    Now Spring has set in with its usual severity!_


    SPRING'S Delights are now returning!
      Let the Lazy Minstrel sing;
    While the ruddy logs are burning,
      Let his merry banjo ring!
    Take no heed of pluvial patter,
      Waste no time in vain regrets;
    Though our teeth are all a-chatter,
      Like the clinking castanets!
    Though it's freezing, sleeting, snowing,
      Though we're speechless from catarrh,
    Though the East wind's wildly blowing,
      Let us warble, _Tra la la_!

    Spring's Delights are now returning!
      Let us order new great-coats:
    Never let us dream of spurning
      Woollen wrap around our throats.
    Let us see the couch nocturnal
      Snugly swathed in eider-down:
    Let not thoughts of weather vernal
      Tempt us to go out of Town.
    Though