London Types: Bluecoat Boy

So went our boys when Edward Sixth, the King,

Chartered Christ's Hospital, and died. And so

Full fifteen generations in a string

Of heirs to his bequest have had to go.

Thus Camden showed, and Barnes, and Stillingfleet,

And Richardson, that bade our Lovelace be;

Thus to his Genevieve young S. T. C.

With thousands else that, wandering up and down,

Quaint, privileged, liked and reputed well,

Made the great School a part of London Town

Patent as Paul's and vital as Bow Bell:

The old School nearing exile, day by day,

To certain clay-lands somewhere Horsham way.