CULLYBACKEY
THE PASSING OF THE OLD “NEW SCHOOLROOM.”
APRIL 1908

Familiar were those diamond panes
That long, low room, where oft I spent
A Sabbath hour on learning bent,
Or took the part of him who trains

The youthful mind to way of God,
In life’s bright springtime, ere the fret
And rush of living had as yet
Scattered my playmates all abroad.

Those happy evenings when we sat
‘Neath odorous lamps and emerald sprays,
When one at least of winter’s days
Was cheered by soirees, functions that

Broke in on winter’s dismal nights,
And drew the young in social cheer,
And brightened up the dying year;
Or filled the new with warm delights;

Or when at lectures, concerts all
The little joys of village life,
I listened with my future wife,
In what was then our largest hall;

Or met for worship once a week
When aye the sexes sat apart;
And Buick, master of the art
Of preaching, oft was wont to speak.

Or when through many a sunny May,
Sweet science called us to the est
Of learning, and at her behest
We “answered,” in the fading day.

In memory’s pages sit enshrined,
Deep in the crannies of the brain,
In convolutions that retain
Impressions of the youthful mind.

Oh, long white house upon the hill,
Oh, good old school! Your work is done,
And on the rising of the sun
We’ll greet another at the mill.

Another, and a larger far,
In soundest architecture knit,
With modern methods as is fit
In social as in racial war.

“Who loves not knowledge? who shall rail
Against her beauty?” so he sings
Whose name we reckon ‘mongst the Kings
Of English song, whose words prevail.

And when that knowledge is designed
To tell of things that last for aye,
Of highest things from day to day,
Is not her beauty rich and kind?

And richly generous was her love
Whose hand has fashioned, set the wheels
That run to music like the peals
Of coming glory from above.

Whose name shall grace this noble Hall,
While through the centuries to be,
Stand Church and school of high degree,
Where Christ shall still be all in all.

James Loughridge 17th April 1908