s way. Both these were poets, or,
perhaps I should say, rhymesters; and whatever the old wives of the
present day may think about the poet, of this I can assure them--that in
those days "the lassies loved him weel i' bonnie Scotland." But to get to
my military reminiscences.

A FREE FIGHT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

With the exception of one "hitch"--and perhaps that was enough--I passed
my time very pleasantly at Ayr Barracks. The incident came about in this
way. I was out in the "toon" with the orderly-room clerk, Sergeant
Delaney, the money both of us had in our pockets sufficing to put us into
high spirits. In our travels we came across a menagerie of wild
beasts--Manders', I think it was--and I was not long in observing that
the members of the band which was "going it" in front of the show were
all men from the Keighley district. The leader of the band, Dawson
Hopkinson, was a Haworth man, and his remains lie in Haworth Churchyard,
a bugle being engraved on the stone over the grave. Hopkinson had been
the landlord of the Golden Lion Inn, at Keighley, previous to travelling
with the menagerie. Other members of the band were Bobby Hartley, of
Keighley, and another named Joe Briggs; two from Silsden, and one from
Wilsden, all of whom were well known at the time as able musicians. I
felt in great glee at meeting with these old friends, and marched boldly
on the platform to greet them. The result of my visit was that I invited
the whole of the band to come and have a drink at the Grossmarket Hotel
down the street. When they had played another tune they "struck" and in a
body followed me to the hotel; and over glasses of "guid auld Scotch" we
told tales of old Keighley until it really seemed that old times had come
again. In chatting over some of the eccentric characters, we had many a
laugh about Three Laps and Job Senior. But the time was flitting by fast,
and my musical guests, it appeared, had not left word at the menagerie
where they were going. Thus there was some justification for the line of
action which the lady of the show had adopted in rushing into the room
and demanding "why her band had given over playing and left the stage."
But the bandsmen had supped, perhaps too freely and too well, and
consequently they were not able to give a clear answer to her question.
Right into the tavern we could hear the growling of the lions, the
howling of the wolves, and the squeaking of the monkeys; and yet,
forsooth! the