Poems by Arthur Conan Doyle

[''Ware Holes!' is the expression used in the hunting-field to warn those behind against rabbit-burrows or other suck dangers.]

They recruited William Evans

Who carries the gun?

[The scene of this ancient fight, recorded by Froissart, is still called 'Altura de los Inglesos.' Five hundred years later Wellington's soldiers were fighting on the same ground.]

Put the saddle on the mare,

(Coronation Year, 1911)

It's up and away from our work to-day,

Being the doggerel Itinerary of a Holiday in September, 1908

The cheese-mites asked how the cheese got there,

Peter Wilson, A.R.A.,

A trader sailed from Stepney town -

Who's that walking on the moorland?

1909

I am not blind I understand;

First begin

[Bendigo, the well-known Nottingham prize fighter, became converted to religion, and preached at revival meetings throughout the country.]

Her cheek was wet with North Sea spray,

The grime is on the window pane,

The Eastern day was well-nigh o'er

[The French Army, including a part of the Irish Brigade, under Marshal Villeroy, held the fortified town of Cremona during the winter of 1702. Prince Eugene, with the Imperial Army, surprised it one morning, and, owing to the treachery of a priest, o

A gentleman of wit and charm,

The bloom is on the May once more,

Captain Temple, D.S.O.,

[Being an humble address to Her Majesty's Naval advisers, who sold Nelson's old flagship to the Germans for a thousand pounds.]

Faith may break on reason,

Man says that He is jealous,

Master went a-hunting,

Great was his soul and high his aim,

Father, father, who is that a-whispering?

Pennarby shaft is dark and steep,

1

From our youth to our age

Masters, I sleep not quiet in my grave,

A sword! A sword! Ah, give me a sword!

I gave the 'orse 'is evenin' feed,

There's a banner in our van,

Squire wants the bay horse,

Little boy Love drew his bow at a chance,

It came from gettin' 'eated, that was 'ow the thing begun,

(After Heine)

1902

"Tell me what to get and I will get it."

Christopher Davis was up upon Mavis

The franklin he hath gone to roam,

What marks the frontier line?

(Being a Sequel to "The Groom's Story" in "Songs of Action")

Ten mile in twenty minutes! 'E done it, sir. That's true.

[Lost, with her crew of three hundred boys, on the last day of her voyage, March 23, 1876. She foundered off Portsmouth, from which town many of the boys came.]

It is mine--the little chamber,

Said the king to the colonel,

(From Heine)

We started from the Valley Pride,

There's a keen and grim old huntsman

When, ere the tangled web is reft,

Three women stood by the river's flood

It was the hour of dawn,

What of the bow?

Said Paul Leroy to Barrow,

With acknowledgment to my friend Sir A. Quiller-Couch.

The horse is bedded down