Punch/Volume 147/Issue 3824/The Southdowns
The Grey Men of the South
They look to glim of seas,
This gentle day of drouth
And sleepy Autumn bees,
Pale skies and wheeling hawk
And scent of trodden thyme,
Brown butterflies and chalk
And the sheep-bells' chime.
The Grey Men they are old,
Ah, very old they be;
They've stood upside the wold
Since all eternity;
They standed in a ring
And the elk-bull roared to them
When Solomon was king
In famed Jerusalem.
King Solomon was wise;
He was King David's son;
He lifted up his eyes
To see his hill-tops run;
And his old heart found cheer,
As yours and mine may do
On these grey days, my dear,
Nor'-East of Piddinghooe.