3-000-282 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Night march at Christmastide of the Rifle Volunteers - drawn by Harrison Weir, 1st Surrey Rifles, 1860. Music by W. M. Balfe, words by Mark Lemon. 'Step together! All together! Close together! Remember this is holy earth On which our measured footsteps tread - The living land which gave us birth! The dust of our immortal dead! Chorus. Step together! All together! Each man's true beside us; Close together! Fall together! Death can but divide us! Step together! All together! Close together! The happy spirits of our sires Look down from yon bright stars above, And from those orbs of quenchless fires Light in our hearts a patriot love...The winds shall hear across the sea The burden of our earnest song - Who hearing doubts we will be free? Who knowing this dare do us wrong?...They taunt us with our love of gold, Our hate of blood, our love of peace; We would not sell what they have sold For even life itself's increase. Step together! All together! Close together! Free mothers have not sung us lays, Or read our history's page in vain; The noble deeds of olden days, When needed, we will do again...Each man's true beside us...Death can but divide us'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.