They want
something hymn-like, something grand, and now I've found it.
Listen!" and Farmer played me that majestic, stately melody which
has since been heard in every country and in every corner of the
globe, wherever two old Harrovians have come together. Some people
may recall how, during the Boer War, "Forty years on" was sung by
two mortally wounded Harrovians on the top of Spion Kop just
before they died.
To my great regret my voice had broken then, else it is quite
possible that Farmer might have selected me to sing "Forty years
on" for the very first time. As it was, that honour fell to a boy
named A.M. Wilkinson, who had a remarkably sweet voice.
John Farmer's eccentricities were, I think, all assumed. He
thought they helped him to manage the boys. I sang in the chapel
choir, and he circulated the quaintest little notes amongst us,
telling us how he wished the Psalms sung. "Psalm 136, quite gaily
and cheerfully; Psalm 137, very slowly and sorrowfully; Psalm 138,
real merry bell-tinkle, with plenty of organ.--J. F."
Long after I had left, Farmer continued to pour out a ceaseless
flow of school songs.
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