This great birth-day.

For you, young potentate o' W****,

I tell your highness fairly,

Down pleasure's stream, wi' swelling sails,

I'm tauld ye're driving rarely;

But some day ye may gnaw your nails,

An' curse your folly sairly,

That e'er ye brak Diana's pales,

Or rattled dice wi' Charlie,
By night or day.
XI.

Yet aft a ragged cowte's been known
To make a noble aiver;
So ye may doucely fill a throne,
For a' their clishmaclaver:
There, him at Agincourt wha shone,
Few better were or braver ;
And yet, wi' funny, queer Sir John,t
He was an unco shaver

For monie a day.
XII.

For you, right reverend O*******,
Nane sets the lawn-sleeve sweeter,
Although a riband at your lug

Wad been a dress completer:
As ye disown yon paughty dog

That bears the keys of Peter,
Then, swith! an' get a wife to hug,
Or, trouth! ye'll stain the mitre
Some luckless day.

Ye, lastly, bonnie blossoms a',

Ye royal lasses dainty,

Heaven make you guid as weel as braw,

An' gie you lads a-plenty :

But sneer nae British boys awa',
For kings are unco scant aye;
An' German gentles are but sma’,
They're better just than want aye,
On onie day.

XV.

God bless you a'! consider now,
Ye're unco muckle dautet ;
But, ere the course o' life be through,
It may be bitter sautet:

An' I hae seen their coggie fou,
That yet hae tarrow't at it;
But or the day was done, I trow,
The laggen they hae clautet

Fu' clean that day.

THE VISION.

DUAN FIRST.+

THE sun had closed the winter day, The curlers quat their roaring play, An' hunger'd maukin ta'en her way To kail-yards green, While faithless snaws ilk step betray Whare she has been.

The thresher's weary flingin-tree,
The lee-lang day had tired me;
And when the day had closed his e'e,
Far i' the west,

Ben i' the spence, right pensivelie,
I gaed to rest.

There, lanely, by the ingle cheek,
I sat and eyed the spewing reek,
That fill'd, wi' hoast-provoking smeek,
The auld clay biggin;
An' heard the restless rattons squeak
About the riggin.

♦ Alluding to the newspaper account of a certain royal sailor's amour.

+ Duan, a term of Ossian's for the different divisions of a digressive poem. See his Cath-Loda, vol. ii. of M'Pherson's translation.

The Wallaces. + William Wallace. + Adam Wallace, of Richardton, cousin immortal preserver of Scottish independence.

to the

§ Wallace, Laird of Craigie, who was second in command, under Douglas Earl of Ormond, at the famous battle on the banks of Sark, fought anno 1448. That glorious victory was principally owing to the judicious conduct, and intrepid valour of the gallant Laird of Craigie, who died of his wounds after the action.

Coilus, King of the Picts, from whom the district of Kyle is said to take its name, lies buried, as tradition says, near the family-seat of the Montgomeries of Coil'sfield, where his burial-place is still shown.

Barskimming the seat of the Lord Justice Clerk. ** Catrine, the seat of the late Doctor and present Professor Stewart.

"Know the great genius of this land Has many a light aërial band, Who, all beneath his high command, Harmoniously,

As arts or arms they understand,

Their labours ply.

" They Scotia's race among them share ; Some fire the soldier on to dare; Some rouse the patriot up to bare Corruption's heart; Some teach the bard, a darling care, The tuneful art.

""Mong swelling floods of recking gore, They, ardent, kindling spirits pour; Or, 'mid the venal senate's roar,

They, sightless, stand,

To mend the honest patriot lore,

And grace the hand.

"And when the bard, or hoary sage, Charm or instruct the future age, They bind the wild poetic rage

In energy,

Or point the inconclusive page

Full on the eye.

"Hence Fullarton, the brave and young;
Hence Dempster's zeal-inspired tongue;
Hence sweet harmonious Beattie sung
His 'Minstrel lays ;'

Or tore, with noble ardour stung,
The skeptic's bays.

"To lower orders are assign'd

The humbler ranks of human-kind,

The rustic bard, the labouring hind,

The artisan;

All choose, as various they're inclined,
The various man.

"When yellow waves the heavy grain, The threatening storm some strongly rein, Some teach to menorate the plain

With tillage-skill;

And some instruct the shepherd train, Blythe o'er the hill.

Colonel Fullarton.

TAM SAMSON'S ELEGY.*

An honest man's the noblest work of God. POPE.

HAS auld K********* seen the deil?
Or great M********+ thrawn his heel?
Or R******* again grown weel,t

To preach an' read. "Na, waur than a"!" cries ilka chiel, Tam Samson's dead!

K********* lang may grunt an' grane,
An' sigh, an' sab, an' greet her lane,
An' cleed her bairns, man, wife, an' wean,
In mourning weed;

To death she's dearly paid the kane,
Tam Samson's dead!

The brethren of the mystic level
May hing their head in woefu' bevel,
While by their nose the tears will revel,
Like ony bead;

Death's gien the lodge an unco devel:
Tam Samson's dead!

That woefu' morn be ever mourn'd,

Saw him in shootin graith adorn'd, While pointers round impatient burn'd, Frae couples freed;

But, och! he gaed and ne'er return'd! Tam Samson's dead!

*When this worthy old sportsman went out last muirfowl season, he supposed it was to be, in Ossian's phrase, "the last of his fields;" and expressed an ardent wish to le and be buried in the muirs. On this hint the author composed his elegy and epitaph.

A certain preacher, a great favourite with the million. Vide the Ordination, stanza ii.

Another preacher, an equal favourite with the few, who was at that time ailing. For him, see also the Ordination, stanza ix.

Wi' weel aim'd heed; "L-d, five!" he cried, and owre did stagger; Tam Samson's dead!