ELEGY ON PEG NICHOLSON,1 A DEAD MARE. PEG NICHOLSON was a good bay mare, Peg Nicholson was a good bay mare, Peg Nicholson was a good bay mare, Peg Nicholson was a good bay mare, Feb. 9, 1790. iron 1 In burlesque allusion, it may be presumed, to the insane woman, Margaret Nicholson, who made an attempt to stab George III. with a knife, August, 1786. WRITTEN TO A GENTLEMAN 1 WHO HAD SENT THE POET A NEWSPAPER, AND OFFERED TO CONTINUE IT FREE OF EXPENSE. KIND Sir, I've read your paper through, How guessed ye, sir, what maist I wanted? gaunted, To ken what French mischief was brewin', groaned yawned Or what the drumlie Dutch were doin'; muddy That vile doup-skelper, Emperor Joseph, If Venus yet had got his nose off; Or how the collieshangie works Or if the Swede, before he halt, contention lease Or Poland, wha had now the tack o't: If Spaniard, Portuguese, or Swiss, emasculated 1 Probably Mr. Peter Stuart, of the Star newspaper. 2 Gustavus III. had attracted considerable notice in 1789 by his vigorous measures against Russia, and the arrest of many of his nobility who disapproved of his measures. Or how our merry lads at hame, In Britain's court, kept up the game; How Royal George, the Lord leuk o'er him! smooth itching stretched Or glaikit Charlie got his nieve in; thoughtless mad hussies Or if he was grown oughtlins douser, any soberer And no a perfect kintra cooser. A' this and mair I never heard of, stallion And but for you I might despaired of. 1 Valuations of property for purposes of taxation. 2 After all, from whatever cause, the gratuitous newspaper did not come very regularly, as appears from a subsequent note of remonstrance sent by the bard to head-quarters: Dear Peter, dear Peter, For instance, your sheet, man, SECOND EPISTLE TO MR. GRAHAM OF FINTRY. The canvass for the Dumfries burghs had been proceeding with excessive vigor all this spring, and when the election at length took place in July, the agitation and fervor of the public mind in the district exceeded everything of the kind previously known. The influence of the Duke of Queensberry on the Whig side proved too much for the merits of excellent "Westerhall," and the dismissal of his Grace from the bedchamber was revenged on Pitt by the return of Captain Miller. In a spirited verseepistle on the subject, addressed to his friend Mr. Graham, Burns still shows, under an affected impartiality, his Tory and even Cavalier leanings. FINTRY, my stay in worldly strife, Come then, wi' uncouth, kintra fleg, country fling And ye shall see me try him. I'll sing the zeal Drumlanrig1 bears, Of princes and their darlings; 1 The Duke of Queensberry. Burns, for metre's sake, uses his Grace's second title. And, bent on winning borough towns, Combustion through our boroughs rode, Of mad, unmuzzled lions As Queensberry buff and blue 1 unfurled, women But Queensberry, cautious, left the war; But left behind him heroes bright, Or Ciceronian pleading. O for a throat like huge Mons-Meg, To win immortal honours. 1 The livery of Mr. Fox. 2 The Earl of Hopetoun. 8 8 A piece of ordnance of extraordinary structure and magnitude, founded in the reign of James IV. of Scotland, about the end of the fifteenth century, and which is still exhibited, though in an infirm state, in Edinburgh Castle. The diameter of the bore is twenty inches. |