The Lincs Lad

When I was two-and-twenty

And Gothick without guile,

With other lads a-plenty

I sought the Pointed Style
In stiff-leaved, ball-flowered, aisle.

Untainted by Palladian

Or other heresies—

Etchelian, Addleshavian,

Or Betjemanian, these,
Got me down by degrees.

Now I am eight-and-thirty

In arshitectural search

Through nundinarian, dirty,

But classic town or church,
With impure step I lurch.

18 May 1948

NOTES

• This poem in SP's archive, in TS, was sent to Sir Howard Colvin his architect friend in a letter of 18-v-1948
• 'Etchelian, Addleshavian' likely refers to The Architectural Setting of Anglican Worship published by Etchells and Addleshaw in 1948