Victoria Park and Caledonian Games

Lines on the naming of Victoria Park, on Queen's Birthday, 1881. The ceremony was performed by Thomas Brown, Esq., Mayor of the town.

Come one, come all, to Scottish games / On the banks of Canadian Thames;

You'll find that 'tis most pleasant way / You can enjoy the Queen's Birthday.

In future years it will be famed / The day whereon the park was named, / With its boundry great extended / And nature's charms sweetly blended.

Full worthy of the poet's theme / Is hill and dale, and wood and stream, / And glittering spires, and busy town.

Where mansions' do each mount top crown.

Come, witness the great tug-of-war, / And the great hammer thrown afar, / See running, jumping, highland fling, / At concert hear the sky lark sing.

And the bagpipes will send thrills / Like echoes from the distant hills, / And the bold sound of the pibroch / Which does resound o'er Scottish loch.

Young men and maids, and fine old dames / Will gather on the banks of Thames, / And though we have a tug-of-war / 'Twill leave no wound or deadly scar.