MR. ERSKINE.

Collected Harry stood awee,
Then open'd out his arm, man;
His lordship sat wi' ruefu' e'e,

And ey'd the gathering storm, man
Like wind-driv'n hail it did assail,
Or torrents owre a linn, man;
The Bench sae wise, lift up their eyes,
Half-wauken'd wi' the din, man.

LINES WRITTEN UNDER THE PICTURE OF

THE CELEBRATED MISS BURNS.*

CEASE, ye prudes, your envious railing,
Lovely Burns has charms-confess :

True it is, she had one failing,

Had a woman ever less?

*

"The Miss Burns of these lines," says Mr. Cunningham," was well known to the bucks of Edinburgh while the Poet resided there." Her history may be guessed from the following passage in his letter to Mr. Peter Hill, Bookseller, Edinburgh, 2nd February, 1790:-" How is the fate of my poor namesake, Mademoiselle Burns, decided? O man! but for thee and thy selfish appetites and dishonest artifices, that beauteous form, and that once innocent and still ingenuous mind, might have shone conspicuous and

ON MISS J. SCOTT, OF AYR.S

OH! had each Scot of ancient times
Been, Jeany Scott, as thou art,
The bravest heart on English ground
Had yielded like a coward.

EPIGRAM ON CAPTAIN FRANCIS GROSE,§

THE CELEBRATED ANTIQUARY.

THE Devil got notice that Grose was a-dying,
So whip! at the summons, old Satan came flying;
But when he approach'd where poor Francis lay
moaning,

And saw each bed-post with its burden a-groaning,
Astonish'd! confounded! cry'd Satan, "By God,
I'll want 'im, ere I take such a damnable load." ||

lovely in the faithful wife and the affectionate mother; and shall the unfortunate sacrifice to thy pleasures have no claim on thy humanity?"

§ Printed in the Glasgow Collection in 1801.

Mr. Grose was exceedingly corpulent, and used to rally himself, with the greatest good humour, on the singular rotundity of his figure.

EPIGRAM ON ELPHINSTONE'S TRANSLATION

OF MARTIAL'S EPIGRAMS.*

O THOU whom Poetry abhors,

Whom Prose had turned out of doors, Heard'st thou that groan?-proceed no further, 'Twas laurel'd Martial roaring murder.

EPITAPH ON A COUNTRY LAIRD, NOT QUITE SO WISE AS SOLOMON.

BLESS Jesus Christ, O Cardoness,
With grateful lifted eyes,
Who said that not the soul alone,
But body too, must rise:
For had he said, "The soul alone
"From death I will deliver,"

Alas, alas! O Cardoness,

Then thou hadst slept for ever!

* Printed in the Glasgow Collection in 1801. In a letter to Clarinda in 1787, Burns asks, " Did I ever repeat to you an epigram I made on a Mr. Elphinstone, who has given a translation of Martial, a famous Latin poet. The poetry of Elphinstone can only equal his prose notes. I was sitting in a merchant's shop of my acquaintance, waiting somebody. He put Elphinstone into my hand, and asked my opinion of it. I begged leave to write it on a blank leaf, which I did."

EPITAPH ON A NOISY POLEMIC.+

BELOW thir stanes lie Jamie's§ banes:
O Death, it's my opinion,

Thou ne'er took such a bleth'rin' bitch
Into thy dark dominion!

EPITAPH ON WEE JOHNNY.||

Hic jacet wee Johnny.

WHOE'ER thou art, O reader, know
That death has murder'd Johnny!

An' here his body lies fu' low-
For saul he ne'er had ony.

+ This Epitaph was printed in the Kilmarnock edition. "Jamie," was James Humphrey, a mason.

"Wee Johnny" was John Wilson, the printer of the Kilmarnock edition of Burns' works, where it was inserted without Wilson being conscious that he was himself alluded

to.

EPITAPH ON A CELEBRATED RULING ELDER.*

HERE SOwter Hood in Death does sleep;

To Hell, if he's gane thither,
Satan, gie him thy gear to keep,
He'll haud it weel thegither.

EPITAPH FOR ROBERT AIKEN, ESQ.+

KNOW thou, O stranger to the fame
Of this much lov'd, much honour'd name!
(For none that knew him need be told)
A warmer heart death ne'er made cold.

EPITAPH FOR GAVIN HAMILTON, ESQ.‡

THE poor man weeps-here Gavin sleeps,
Whom canting wretches blam'd:
But with such as he, where'er he be,
May I be sav'd or damn'd!

* Printed in the Kilmarnock edition in 1786, in a copy of which the name is supplied in the Poet's handwriting.

To whom the Cotter's Saturday Night is inscribed. This occurs to the Kilmarnock edition.

This Epitaph is likewise in the Kilmarnock edition.