"On the
Green of Richmond
Hill"
How glad we were to meet once more,
Where we were born and bred;
To see remaining loved ones,
And the graves of them that's dead.
We were glad to see the faces,
And it gave our hearts a thrill
To meet the boys we played with
On the "Green of Richmond Hill."
The summer-saults we used to turn
upon the old school ground,
The horses that we drove with strings,
The marbles that we found,
The rafts we built, the fish we caught
'Way down on Elgin Creek.
And "Old Blind Tom" and "Leap frog,"
And the old game "Hide-and-seek."
The toes were stubbed, the heels were skinned
With pain that makes us shout
And plastered o'er with mud sometimes
With shirt on wrong side out.
New voices now are shouting
Where the old are gone or still.
We think today of childhood's hour
On the "Green of Richmond Hill."
The stage that left at seven o'clock,
No doubt you all well mind,
How Hewison gave us many a cut
For hanging on behind.
The creek that ran the old flour mill,
We dammed the water back.
And Dixon used to fret and say
We turned the water black.
The orchards there for miles around,
We'd been in every tree.
We'd been in every empty house
That didn't have a key.
No matter what was going on,
We boys would have our fill,
For there was nothing then too good
On the "Green of Richmond Hill."
We all recollect the medicine
And just how much to take,
When we had the cholera fever
And the awful stomache ache.
How we ate too many cookies
From the highest pantry shelf,
And young
Langstaff
couldn't help us
'Cause he was eating them himself.
How we got the poison ivy
Gathering berries round the stumps,
How we suffered from the measles,
And the chicken pox and mumps.
But the time we ate green apples
Was no worse than any pill
That we got from
Langstaff's father
On the " Green of Richmond Hill."
Every boy there had his sweet heart,
Maidens with the loveliest curls.
There was no time in its history
Richmond Hill had sweeter girls.
They were dressed in dainty fabrics
With a modesty desired,
With a hat that showed their faces,
And a dress as much admired.
And Billie Trench, the young divine,
Was thinking of his purse,
When he dreamed he'd join us all
For better or for worse.
And when a license was produced,
And once he used his quill,
There was room for one more couple
On the " Green of Richmond Hill."
John Hamilton in
The LiberalSeptember 7, 1911
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