directed by J. H. ROGERS

THE BEN DON MALE VOICE QUARTET

Drake's Drum; Devon, O Devon, in Wind and Rain; The Old Superb

Stanford excelled as a writer of sea-songs.
Of these probably the best known are those entitled Songs of the Sea-settings of verses by Sir Henry Newbolt.
In Drake's Drum there is a note of the seaman's superstition - the kind that is uncommonly useful when, as here, it takes the form of the belief that, should things go badly, Drake, though 'in his hammock and a thousand miles away, Slung atween the roundshot in Nombre Dios Bay,' will come to the rescue.

If the Dons sight Devon, I'll quit the port of Heaven,
And drum them up the Channel, as we drummed them long ago.

In Devon, O Devon we have not only the celebration of the pride and glory of the men of Devon in Drake's day, but a note of more recent history -a reference, in the last verse, to the battle of Waggon Hill (South Africa, 1900); the poet imagines Drake turning again from his long rest to bring victory to his men of Devon.

The Old Superb was one of Nelson's fleet - 'old and foul and slow,' whose 'sticks were only at for stirring grog.' But -

The French are gone to Martinique, and Nelson's on the trail,
And where he goes the 'Old Superb' must go.