THE VETERANS' FETE
The theatrical profession has been very much to the fore during the past week in matters of charity. The most important event in this respect which we are called upon to chronicle in the present issue was the Fete of the Veterans, held in the Old ranelagh Gardens, Chelsea, and opened on Tuesday afternoon by the Duke and Duchess f Connaught. the grounds could scarcely have looked more beautiful on this fine July afternoon, as crowds of exquisitely frocked ladies paraded up and down the avenue formed by the rows of stalls...
One of the chief items in the programme of entertainments...was presented in the Veterans' Theatre. Why the tent...was so named can be merely conjectured from the fact that Mr Alfred Turner, who managed the show, cried out, in order, we suppose, to induce custom, that no actor under ninety years of age would appear...
[Also in the Veterans' theatre] Miss Inescort ... recited in thrilling fashion a poem, by the Poet Laureate, appropriate to the occasion, a couple of verses of which are as follows:
Behold where in the gutter he doth stand.
A box of matches in his feeble hand.
Yet that same hand once clutched a sabre keen.
Brandished aloft where its cold, speckless sheen
Caught the pale light from the foemen's deadly fire.
And many a rider rolled into the mire
At Balaclava.
Then, proud Britannia, though whose regal sway
Imperial Rome had envied in her day.
Take these thine aged warriors to thy breast.
Thou gav'st them laurels once, now give them rest.
Recall from streets, and from the workhouse, too,
And tend them whilst thou may'st — it is their due
For Balaclava.
...The labours of Mr Willie Clarkson in connection with the fete should not be overlooked, for the worthy peruquier of Wardour street had put forth a special effort in the matter of many of the costumes and dresses, and some of the old soldiers who strolled about the gardens — most of them leaning heavily on sticks, if not on crutches — had been dressed by Mr Clarkson in the uniforms of their old regiments as the appeared half a century ago. The face of every man of them seared by age or marked by the toils of war, they presented a spectacle which was impressive, if not pathetic.
[Source: "The Veterans' Fete", The Era, 11 January 1908.]
[Source: "The Veterans' Fete", The Era, 11 January 1908.]
These two verses are a fragment of an untitled, unattributed poem quoted in "The Veterans' Fete", The Era, 11 January 1908.
The references to matches and the gutter suggest a link to the anonymous "Matches", from around 1890, reprinted in the memoir of 1567 John Richardson, 11th Hussars. Are they connected?
Judging by the date, presumably the Poet Laureate referred to is Alfred Austin (mocked in Punch as "Alfred the Little", who occupied the position 1896 — 1913, directly after Tennyson ("Alfred the Great").
But where? I've checked online (though not exhaustively) and can find nothing. Searching for e.g. "behold where in the gutter he doth stand" turned up nothing. Neither did "a box of matches in his feeble hand".
I've checked without success in "Narrative Poems"
I found nothing in an online collection of Austin's poems here: http://www.poemhunter.com/alfred-austin/poems/
The "Old Ranelagh Gardens" on which the "Veterans' Fete" took place were by this time part of the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, and opposite Chelsea Barracks, so the military connection was obvious. They were formerly public Pleasure Gardens on the north bank of the Thames and considered more "fashionable" than the better-known Vauxhall Gardens a mile or so downstream. They are now used for the annual Chelsea Flower Show. There is a huge amount of information online, including: