Rudolph Chambers Lehmann

Rudolph Chambers Lehmann Poems

Rudolph Chambers Lehmann Biography

Rudolph Chambers "R.C." Lehmann (3 January 1856–22 January 1929) was an English writer and Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1906 to 1910. As a writer he was best known for the period of three decades in which he was a major contributor to Punch Lehmann was born in Ecclesall near Sheffield. His father was Frederick Augustus Lehmann, a merchant whose brothers Henri and Rudolf were both noted academic artists. His mother, Nina Chambers, was the daughter of the Scot author and naturalist Robert Chambers. Their social circle included Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Robert Browning, Lord Leighton, and other prominent figures. Lehmann attended Highgate School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was president of the Cambridge Union Society in 1876. He was also a rower, and captained the First Trinity Boat Club, although in the trial eights for two years, he did not quite make the Cambridge eight. At Henley Royal Regatta he finished last in every heat he entered, from the 1877 Visitors’ to the 1888 Wyfolds. Lehmann was admitted at the Inner Temple on 6 November 1875 and called to the bar on 21 April 1880. He served on the South Eastern Circuit. In April 1889, Lehmann began editing the Cambridge undergraduates' magazine Granta and his first contribution to Punch appeared in the 14 December 1889 issue of Punch, a dialogue with the title "Among the Amateurs". More pieces appeared in Punch, such as the series titled "Modern Types", and parodies of well-known contemporary authors under the title of "Mr Punch's Prize Novels", and within four months he had been appointed as one of the editorial staff and regular contributors, his writings for Punch stretching over thirty years, from 1889 to 1919. He wrote perhaps the first series of Sherlock Holmes parodies in Punch from August until early November 1894; they were collected in 1901 as a book entitled The Adventures of Picklock Holes. From 1891 to 1903 Lehmann coached Oxford and Cambridge, generally as a finishing coach for one or the other but in 1892 for both. He also coached at various times Leander, Harvard, Trinity College Dublin, and the Berlin Rowing Club. "It was characteristic of him that he gave his valued services to two countries, three universities, and several colleges besides his own". He was Hon. Sec. of the Amateur Rowing Association from 1893 to 1901 and captain of the Leander Club in 1894 and 1895. He was considered an authority on rowing, about which he wrote a book, The Complete Oarsman. Lehmann also wrote verse, mostly light and was described as the "Poet Laureate of Rowing". He tried his hand as a lyricist in such works as His Majesty, a comic opera in the Gilbert and Sullivan vein, with music by Alexander Mackenzie, a libretto by F. C. Burnand and additional lyrics by Adrian Ross, presented at the Savoy Theatre in 1897. He was editor of the Daily News in 1901. Lehmann lived at Bourne End, Buckinghamshire and was a J.P. for the county. He was High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire in 1901. In 1906 Lehmann was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Harborough which he held until 1910. He was sketched in A History of Punch by R.G.G. Price as indolent, but able to rouse to write a short piece, and as having given some of that character to the rest of the staff. [citation needed] Other books derived from Punch writing, i.e. The Vagabond and Other Poems from Punch. Lehmann died in High Wycombe, aged 73. His children were John Lehmann, Rosamond Lehmann and the actress Beatrix Lehmann (1903–1979).)

The Best Poem Of Rudolph Chambers Lehmann

The Dogs' Welcome

Hush! We're not a pack of boys
Always bound to make a noise.
True, there's one amongst us, but
He is young;
And, wherever we may take him,
We can generally shut
Such a youngster up and make him
Hold his tongue.

Hush! Most cautiously we go
On the tippest tip of toe.
Are the dogs expecting us
At the gate?
Two, who usually prize us,
Will they jump and make a fuss?
Will they really recognise us
Where they wait?

Hush! I hear the funny pair
Softly whimpering--yes, they're there.
Dane and Pekinese, they scratch
At the wood,
At the solid wood between us;
Duke attempts to lift the latch;
It's a month since they have seen us--
Open! Good!

Down, Duke, down! Enough, enough!
Soo-Ti's screaming; seize his scruff.
Soo-Ti's having fearful fits;
Duke is tearing us to bits.
One will trip us, one will throw us--
But, the darlings, _don't_ they know us!

Then off with a clatter the long dog leapt, and, oh, what a race he ran,
At the hurricane pace of a minute a mile, as only a long dog can.
Into and out of the bushes he pierced like a shooting star;
And now he thundered around us, and now he was whirling far.
And the little dog gazed till he seemed amazed,
and then he took to it too;
With shrill notes flung from his pert pink tongue
right after his friend he flew;
And the long legs lashed and the short legs flashed
and scurried like anything,
While Duke ran round in a circle and Soo-Ti ran in a ring.

And last they hurtled amongst us, and then there were tales to tell,
For all of us seemed to be scattered and torn,
and all of us shrieked and fell;
And John, who is plump, got an awful bump,
and Helen, who's tall and thin,
Was shot through a shrub and gained in bruise
as much as she lost in skin;
And Rosamond's frock was rent in rags, and tattered in strips was Peg's,
And both of them suffered the ninepin fate to the ruin of arms and legs;
And every face was licked by a dog, and battered was every limb,
When Duke ran round in a circle and Soo-Ti ran after him.

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