Punch: Punch (75.1878)

150

LAWN-TENNIS UNDER DIFFICULTIES.-" PLAY '. "

If Space is limited, there is no reason why one shouldn't 1'lay with one's next-door Neighbours, oyer the Garden

Wall. (One needn't Visit them, you know !)

THE SHADOW ON THE HILLS;

Heady!

So rings the Watchword o'er the Western "border.
And India, arms at hand, and well in order,

Stands still, attent, and steady,
Watching-—what ? Scarce the Wolf, whose snarl of wrath
Affronts and would arrest her on her path ;
Nor the red sun-glare on the glittering snow
That crowns the summits of the Sufeid Koh ;
But a dim Shadow, Yaguely vast, which creeps

Across the craggy steeps.

Scared at a Shadow ? Nay, she is not scared,
Nor menacing ; but vigilant, prepared.
She need not fear, nor need she rashly flaunt,
Her hand in reach of the aye-ready steel,

The Lion at her heel,
A tutelary warder none may daunt.
But watch she must, and strike, if need arise.
Empress of realms'beneath those Orient skies,
Where rumour shakes allegiance as the wind
Bustles dry reeds, and gossip can unbind
The bonds of generations. She too knows
That Nemesis of Conquest which forbids

_ The Conqueror at will to close
The circle of his dominating sweep,

Whilst rivals creep and creep,
Like Shadows first, then in more solid guise,
Nearer his holds, as to dispute the prize.

So India wakes, and watches, not again
Amidst those iron hills to stand at check,

Or fall in seeming wreck
Back from the ambushed Afghan's bullet-rain.
Not as inviting strife, but in defence,
Checkmating craft and curbing insolence,

Or overt or occult;

For they who dare insult
The Indian Una, dreaming, it may be,
The Lion sleeps or strays, right soon must see
The dusky Virgin is awake and armed,
Her champion alert and unalarmed.
No time for too close question of the past,
Of too unwary steps too hot retracing :
The Shadow o'er yon western hill-tops cast_
May pass like other shades, but India, bracing
Her strength against all chances, hrm and steady,

Must pass the Watchword—" Ready! "

CASTS OF " CHARACTERS."

Professor Punch,

Encouragement of Research is certainly not one amongst
the duties of the Home Office. The contrary, indeed, appears to be
its policy, if not its function, from the conclusion of a letter addressed
from that Department to a Gentleman who had complained of not
having been permitted to take a cast of the head of a recently
executed convict:—

" I am to add that Mr. Cross has thought it advisable to give directions
that the practice of allowing casts to be taken of the heads of condemned
criminals should be discontinued.—A. J. 0. Liddell."

Why, Mr. Punch, when the casts are not taken till after death ?
Was there ever any objectionable sale for the casts of criminals
heads, regarded as objects of morbid interest ? Or is it possible that
Mr. Cross considers the truth of Phrenology so completely demon-
strated in every particular that there is no necessity whatever for
any more study of the relation between the mental character and
the form of the head ? Can he be quite satisfied that on that point
there is nothing more left to be ascertained by the_ student of Science
through observations conducted on the lines laid down by Lord
Bacon ? Surely the Home Secretary cannot confound Bacon with

Gammon.