The following lines were delivered by me at ihe first Decoration of Graves in Ingersoll. I took part in a ceremony of the same kind in Woodstock in 1890, and such was the superabundance of flowers there that I reserved a boquet for the grave of young McKenzie, who fell nobly fighting for his country at the Battle of Ridgeway. The County of Oxford has erected a fine monument, with a substantial iron railing around the hero’s grave, on the banks of the Thames.
This is the opening dedication
Of annual day of decoration,
And thus each year will brothers meet
To shed the bloom and perfume sweet;
For they will have a noble aim
In meeting on the banks of Thame.
In the States they decorate grave
Of each departed soldier brave,
But here in Ontario West
We decorate where brothers rest,
Though some are unknown to fame
They peaceful rest on banks of Thame.
No more their grave is place of gloom,
But scene of fragrance and bloom;
No more the tomb is dismal cave
For flowers each year will o’er it wave;
In sweet remembrance each name
Will live beside the silver Thame.
Flowers here will shed their rich perfume
And thus dispel the dismal gloom;
Departed’s memory we cherish,
And their names shall never perish,
While doth flow the pleasant stream
O’er pebbly bed, the crystal Thame.