The Skinners' School - The Leopard Song

The Leopard Song

The Skinners' School, like many schools started by London livery companies, has a school song. The lyrics are by Percy Shaw Jeffrey and appeared in the school magazine December 1894, and are as follows:

1

Now hands about, good Leopards all,

And sing a rousing chorus,

In praise of all our comrades here

And those who went before us;

For to this lay all hearts beat true,

The gallant hearts that love us,

So fortune 'fend each absent friend

While there's a sun above us.

Chorus

Sing Leopards Sing (Breathe)

Floreat Sodalitas.

Little matter, well or ill,

Sentiment is more than skill,

Sing together with a will

Floreat Sodalitas,

'dalitas Pardorum.

2

The ivy climbs by brick and stone

About the buttressed Hall;

So memory weaves a charm to keep

Her servitors in thrall.

And whiskered leopards think with awe

Of Bab-el-Mandeb's Straits

Where in the days of long ago

They wrestled with the fates.

(Chorus)

3

Then here's a toast before we part,

"The School House By The Lew"

And may its friends be stout of heart,

Its enemies be few

So we will pledge our noble selves

To use our best endeavour,

That while the merry world goes round

The School may stand forever!

(Chorus)