And raise the strain of my coy modest muse, I hear the birds, here, sweet companions, sing; To welcome home the verdure of the spring. While herbalizing shady groves, and mountains, I quench my thirst by crystal streams, and fountains; There, joyfully, I sit me down and smell, The flowery fields, and Heliconian well. I am no Nimrod; nor make it my care, I love the net; I like the fishing hook; Order my hedges, and repair my ditches, So, when of these sweet solitudes I tire, We have our trysts, and meetings of the shire ; Pleased, I return to garden, book, or study; Near unto Libberton, or Foster's Wynd, The good old man may, cozie, live, you find. I will not be so graceless, James, nor bold, There must he quartered be, God's praise to sing, ELEGY on the Death of ALEXANDER PENNECUIK of New Hall, sometime Chirurgeon to General BANNIER, in the Swedish wars; and, since, Chirurgeon-General to the auxiliary Scots army in England. The Author's Father. COME, try your talents; mourn, and bear a part, Ye candidates of learned Machaon's art : For death, at length, hath shuffled from the stage The oldest Esculapius of our age: A Scotsman true; a faithful friend, and sure; Who flattered not the rich, nor scourged the poor. Where shall we go for help? Whom shall we trust? Our Scots Apollo's humbled in the dust! Many poor souls will miss him, in their need; To whom his hands gave health; yea clothes, and bread. Thrice thirty years do now these hands destroy, That cured our maladies, and caused our joy. Five mighty kings, from's birth unto his grave, The Caledonian sceptre swayed have. Four times his eyes have seen, from cloak to gown, Prelate and Presbyter turn upside down. He loved his native country as himself; From old forbeirs, much worth he did inherit; Nothing is here expressed, but what is true. Farewell, old Pennecuik !—Reader, adieu! INSCRIPTION to be put at the foot of JONAS HAMILTON of Coldcoat's* Picture, drawn by PAINTER, thou hast, now, with grace, Drawn me Coldcoat's martial face, To none alive that he will yield No less for Bacchus shall his name, Now Macbiehill; between New Hall, and Romanno. + Ramsay Earl of Dalhousie; Allan Ramsay's chief. Brave Nicolson, who's in his grave, No epitaph we need, on stone, While Session Books † there's in the land. The LINTOUN CABAL, or the Jovial Smith of Lintoun's Invitation of his Club to their Morning's Draught, whom he had made drunk the night before, after a great Storm. FLY fearful thoughts of funeral, Call here James Douglas of the Hall, Let's rant and merry be. Sir William Drummond of Hawthornden; son to the cele brated poet, whose portrait, with that of his friend Ben Jonson, Allan Ramsay hung out for his sign as a bookseller. Sir William, Dr Pennecuik's companion, was proprietor of the farms of Upper and Nether Whitefield, between New Hall, and Romanno. + Parish-church books, in which fines for fornication, &c. are recorded. The Hall-House of Lintoun. Some of the old feus in the village are held for the payment of a plack, when demanded from a hole in the back-wall of the Hall-House of Lintoun. |