The Virginians of the Valley

The knightliest of the knightly race   That, since the days of old, Have kept the lamp of chivalry   Alight in hearts of gold; The kindliest of the kindly band   That, rarely hating ease, Yet rode with Spotswood round the land,   And Raleigh round the seas; Who climbed the blue Virginian hills   Against embattled foes, And planted there, in valleys fair,   The lily and the rose; Whose fragrance lives in many lands,   Whose beauty stars the earth, And lights the hearths of happy homes   With loveliness and worth. We thought they slept!—the sons who kept   The names of noble sires, And slumbered while the darkness crept   Around their vigil fires; But aye the “Golden Horseshoe” knights   Their old Dominion keep, Whose foes have found enchanted ground,   But not a knight asleep.