Your invitation has been heard,
To visit the old campus ground,
The Letter Men have heard "The Call,"
"Remember College of the Crown."
To honor culture fields anew,
To tell the legends of the river,
To seek and find the old land marks,
Memorials to live forever.
To you the College holds high place,
The college of the Matthews line,
The Alma Mater of your sire,
And kinsmen since the founding time.
Your brothers' canvas now adorns,
The walls of memory and fame.
With portraits of the Presidents,
Those lost to State through war and flame.
Other new friends come bearing gifts,
Memorials of long ago.
To tell the story of Jamestown,
Where British sons met Indian foe.
At King's Mill in the forest wild,
The Mecca point of pioneers,
The first colonial capital,
A town of fame three hundred years.
With new made friends two well-known men.
Under the flag, under the crown,
Two captains great of industry,
Two library founders of renown.
A native son of Scotia's Isle,
Son of success to high degree,
Donates to the old campus grounds,
The wished-on-wished new library.
A monument to mark events,
Since sixteen hundred ninety-three,
A memorial to progress,
The college gift of Carnegie.
Your friend George Clinton Batcheller,
A leading patriot of New York,
A son of ancient pedigree,
A Puritan of Plymouth Rock.
Donates a large Endowment Fund,
To light the lamp of history,
To re-illume paths of the past,
To honor State of Destiny.
This portrait on the walls you place,
George C. Batcheller, LL.D.
An honor to a Northern Son.
In this our year of jubilee,
It turns the page of history,
To Plymouth Rock, to old Jamestown,
A page both North and South illumed.
From Lexington to old Yorktown.
J. Q. Adams of Flag House fame,
Son of the Founder of Braintree,
A lover of the North and South,
Exponent of Fraternity.
Presents a portrait of your friend
To the old College of the Crown.
The Daughter of a Pioneer,
Her sire a man of Lexington.
It is her pleasure to donate,
A mirror with historic frame,
Drake, Gilbert, Raleigh, Cavendish,
In hand-wrought bronze of age and fame,
Four founding men of enterprise,
The pioneers of land and sea,
That changed the history of the world,
Four famous men of destiny.
But, my friend, of all the pictures
We hang today on memory's wall,
The old live oak of Matthew's Home,
May live in hearts dearest of all.
We'll engrave it on a field of gold,
The giant oak of Powhatan,
A souvenir of Founding Days,
In memory of a noble man.
A Matthews medal "to pass on,"
The fruits and flowers of memory,
Through the old college of the Crown,
The Kingdom Home of History.
Again the wand of memory,
Touches a church of olden time,
To pay tribute to founding sires,
A pew of church and state to thine.
In Bruton Church of memories,
The relic sponsor of Jamestown,
The daughter of the mother church,
The second church under the crown.
Where pioneers met God in prayer,
Where faith in King and Crown was true,
Where sons of William and Mary met,
The church and state their point of view.
The New York State Chapter with pride
Stands sponsor for the Warden's Pew,
The Daughters of first founding sires,
The Daughters of the Patriots true.
A bronze plate now commemorates,
Under the Cross, under the Crown,
The Warden's Pew of British Church.
And Founding Captain of renown,
A tribute to the church and state,
To stand for time the Honor Pew.
To chief of Royal Government,
From Sixteen Hundred twenty-two,
Until the year of Sixteen-sixty,
When England won her King and Crown.
Matthews, passed to a Higher Court,
To Hail the Restoration dawn,
He made the long silent return,
The year of England's Jubilee.
To rest with British kin "at home,"
To us he left a memory.
She died as I would have her die,
In the full tide of honors won.
With Daughters of the Founding Sires,
On Honor Day to Old Jamestown.
To hear praise of "The Warden's Pew,"
And Matthew's Tablet, to pass down.
The Daughters Gifts, to Bruton Church,
Memorials of Old Jamestown.