The Chapel

After that the York and North Midland Railway has, so to speak, had it. "Through yon dark wood he takes his course," and Master Motley is launched on an elegant description of the English countryside through which, inevitably, the "half-tamed devil" (the locomotive) must pass.

T. C. Smyth first bids us "Mark how the dread car, in the power of its might, Now whirls on its course, and is hid from the sight; Not the speed of the racer, the feet of the deer, Can equal the force of its mighty career." Then he gets on to something big. With prophetic eye, he . sees Commerce— "So long through the course of our prosperous isle, May it pour the bright sunshine of Fortune's sweet smile And long to Old Ebor's gray walls may it bring The tide of full wealth from a deep-flowing spring. While Commerce her bountiful harvest shall shed Where monarchs have ruled, and where heroes have bled, And soon the bright wreath of that glory restore Which blazed upon Ebor's high temples of yore."

As for Thomas Dewse, he catalogues (at great length) the hackneyed themes of earlier poets and dismisses them thus— "Not these I sing, but with enraptured flight Haste to the cry of 'Railroads', 'Engines', 'Steam' : What wonders thicken on my sated sight, The magic birth of some substantial dream, Billows of smoke out-gushing black as night, The massive boat breasting the tumid stream ! Now she moves onward 'like a thing of life', Mocking the rage of elemental strife, The breath of Commerce wafting her the while—"

But T. C. Smyth has said all that. Anyhow, we feel we have done enough to show that of St. Peter's in 1839, we might say, as Dr. Johnson did of Pembroke College, Oxford—"Sir, we are a nest of singing birds."

Where are they in 1949? L.B.

For the first time the Junior School had its own Carol Service last term, quite separate from the Senior School.

A special "Ceremony of Carols" was devised for the Junior School, and this Service was at 3 p.m. The Service provided movement and also gave an opportunity to six representatives of each Form to sing