Names, honour’d of old, on our Club-book enroll’d,
It were shame should their successors slight ‘em,
They who Horace could quote, and who first of all wrote
On our Tarporley glasses ‘Quaesitum’;
O, famous Quaesitum!
Famous in story Quaesitum!
There has pass’d very nigh a full century by
Since our fathers first fill’d a Quaesitum.
Old Bacchus so jolly, who hates melancholy,
Our founders, how can he requite ‘em?
From the land of the vine let the best of his wine
Be reserv’d to o’erflow the Quaesitum
O, famous Quaesitum!
Jolly Bacchus, fill up the Quaesitum!
Whether claret or port, it must be the best sort,
If it fit be to fill a Quaesitum.
The goblet, methinks, from which Jupiter drinks,
With thunder-cheer ter repetitum,
Since when Juno was gone he turn’d into the Swan,
Should be chang’d for a crystal Quaesitum;
O, famous Quaesitum!
Fit for Olympus, Quaesitum!
Cup-bearer Hebe, how happy would she be
With nectar to fill a Quaesitum.
Those who dar’d with rude eye at Diana to spy,
She unkennel’d her pack to affright ‘em;
She who smiles with delight on our banquet to-night,
Bids us fill to the chase a Quaesitum;
Fill, fill the Quaesitm!
To the heart-stirring chase a Quaesitum!
She who sheds her bright beam upon fountain and stream
With her smile shall make bright the Quaesitum.
One bright bumper still let all fox-hunters fill,
‘Tis a toast that will fondly excite ‘em,
Since the brave can alone claim the fair as their own,
Let us drink to our loves a Quaesitum;
Fill, fill the Quaesitum!
A glowing o’erflowing Quaesitum!
From Beauty’s sweet lip he who kisses would sip,
With his own must first kiss the Quaesitum.
Again ere I end, all who foxes befriend,
Let a bumper thrice honour’d delight ‘em,
May the forward and fast still be up at the last!
Give the slow ones another Quaesitum;
Fill, fill the Quaesitum!
To good fellows all a Quaesitum!
Let him fast be or slow, each shall prove ere we go,
An excuse for another Quaesitum.
R E Egerton Warburton 1859
Egerton Warburton rode with the Tarporley Hunt Club, of which he became a member in 1825 and its president in 1838
The Quaesitum is an inscribed tankard for official toasts.