Tell England

Tell England

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Title: Tell England A Study in a Generation
Author: Ernest Raymond
Release Date: February 13, 2005 [EBook #15033]
Language: English
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TELL ENGLAND
A Study in a Generation
By ERNEST RAYMOND

NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 1922

_For all emotions that are tense and strong, And utmost knowledge, I
have lived for these-- Lived deep, and let the lesser things live long,

The everlasting hills, the lakes, the trees, Who'd give their thousand
years to sing this song Of Life, and Man's high sensibilities, Which I
into the face of Death can sing-- O Death, then poor and disappointed
thing--
Strike if thou wilt, and soon; strike breast and brow; For I have lived:
and thou canst rob me now Only of some long life that ne'er has been.
The life that I have lived, so full, so keen, Is mine! I hold it firm
beneath thy blow And, dying, take it with me where I go._

CONTENTS
A PROLOGUE BY PADRE MONTY
BOOK I: FIVE GAY YEARS OF SCHOOL
_
Part I: Tidal Reaches_

Chapter I
RUPERT RAY BEGINS HIS STORY II RUPERT OPENS A GREAT
WAR III AWFUL ROUT OF RAY IV THE PREFECTS GO OVER
TO THE ENEMY V CHEATING VI AN INTERLUDE
_
Part II: Long, Long Thoughts_
VII CAUGHT ON THE BEATEN TRACK VIII THE FREEDHAM
REVELATIONS IX WATERLOO OPENS X WATERLOO
CONTINUES: THE CHARGE AT THE END OF THE DAY XI THE
GREAT MATCH XII CASTLES AND BRICK-DUST
BOOK II: AND THE REST--WAR
_
Part I: "Rangoon" Nights_

I THE ETERNAL WATERWAY II PADRE MONTY AND MAJOR
HARDY COME ABOARD III "C. OF E., NOW AND ALWAYS" IV
THE VIGIL V PENANCE VI MAJOR HARDY AND PADRE
MONTY FINISH THE VOYAGE
_
Part II: The White Heights_
VII MUDROS, IN THE ISLE OF LEMNOS VIII THE GREEN
ROOM IX PROCEEDING FORTHWITH TO GALLIPOLI X SUVLA
AND HELLES AT LAST XI AN ATMOSPHERE OF SHOCKS AND
SUDDEN DEATH XII SACRED TO WHITE XIII "LIVE DEEP,
AND LET THE LESSER THINGS LIVE LONG" XIV THE
NINETEENTH OF DECEMBER XV TRANSIT XVI THE HOURS
BEFORE THE END XVII THE END OF GALLIPOLI XVIII THE
END OF RUPERT'S STORY

TELL ENGLAND

A PROLOGUE BY PADRE MONTY
§1
In the year that the Colonel died he took little Rupert to see the
swallows fly away. I can find no better beginning than that.
When there devolved upon me as a labour of love the editing of Rupert
Ray's book, "Tell England," I carried the manuscript into my room one
bright autumn afternoon, and read it during the fall of a soft evening,
till the light failed, and my eyes burned with the strain of reading in the
dark. I could hardly leave his ingenuous tale to rise and turn on the gas.
Nor, perhaps, did I want such artificial brightness. There are times
when one prefers the twilight. Doubtless the tale held me fascinated
because it revealed the schooldays of those boys whom I met in their
young manhood, and told afresh that wild old Gallipoli adventure
which I shared with them. Though, sadly enough, I take Heaven to
witness that I was not the idealised creature whom Rupert portrays.
God bless them, how these boys will idealise us!

Then again, as Rupert tells you, it was I who suggested to him the
writing of his story. And well I recall how he demurred, asking:
"But what am I to write about?" For he was always diffident and
unconscious of his power.
"Is Gallipoli nothing to write about?" I retorted. "And you can't have
spent five years at a great public school like Kensingtowe without one
or two sensational things. Pick them out and let us have them. For
whatever the modern theorists say, the main duty of a story-teller is
certainly to tell stories."
"But I thought," he broke in, "that you're always maintaining that the
greatest fiction should be occupied with Subjective Incident."
"Don't interrupt, you argumentative child," I said (you will find Rupert
is impertinent enough in one place to suggest that I have a tendency to
be rude and a tendency to hold forth). "Surely the ideal story must
contain the maximum of Objective Incident with the maximum of
Subjective Incident. Only give us the exciting events