Has oft been stretched to shield the honoured land! Strong may she glow with all her ancient fire! Bold may she brave grim Danger's loudest roar, Till Fate the curtain drops on worlds to be no more! WILLIE'S AWA'. "The enclosed I have just wrote, nearly extempore, in a solitary inn at Selkirk, after a miserably wet day's riding." - Burns to William Creech, 13th May, 1787. AULD chuckie 1 Reekie's 2 sair distrest, Down droops her ance weel-burnished crest, Nae joy her bonny buskit nest Can yield ava, Her darling bird that she lo❜es best Willie's awa'! decorated at all 1 Literally, a hen; secondarily, a familiar term of address: "Gin ony sour-mou'd girning bucky Ca' me conceited keckling chucky." RAMSAY. ? Literally, smoky; a familiar sobriquet for Edinburgh, not at all unsuitable. Oh Willie was a witty wight, And had o' things an unco slight; knowledge Auld Reekie aye he keepit tight, And trig and braw: But now they'll busk her like a fright The stiffest o' them a' he bowed; They durst nae mair than he allowed, dress We've lost a birkie weel worth gowd― fellow — gold Willie's' awa'! Now gawkies, tawpies, gowks,1 and fools, May sprout like simmer puddock-stools toad-stools He wha could brush them down to mools Willie's awa'! wood the dust The brethren o' the Commerce-Chaumer 2 Amang them a'; 1 Gawky, a simpleton; tawpy, usually applied to a foolish, sluttish woman; gowk, literally, the cuckoo; secondarily, a fool. 2 The Chamber of Commerce at Edinburgh, of which Creech was secretary. I fear they'll now mak monie a stammer Nae mair we see his levee door Philosophers and poets pour, The adjutant o' a' the core 1 Now worthy Gregory's Latin face, As Rome ne'er saw; They a' maun meet some ither place- TOW Poor Burns e'en Scotch drink canna quicken ; He cheeps like some bewildered chicken, chirps 1 Creech, who, besides being a clever and well-educated man, enjoyed high reputation as a teller of quaint stories, lived on familiar terms with many of the literary men of his day. His house, in one of the elevated floors of a tenement in the High Street, accessible from a wretched alley called Craig's Close, was frequented in the mornings by company of that kind, to such an extent that the meeting used to be called Creech's Levee. Burns here enumerates as attending it, Dr. James Gregory, author of the Conspectus Medicinæ ; Alexander Fraser Tytler, afterwards Lord Woodhouselee; Dr. William Greenfield, professor of rhetoric in the Edinburgh University; Henry Mackenzie, author of The Man of Feeling; and Dugald Stewart, professor of moral philosophy. Scared frae its minnie and the cleckin' By hoodie-craw; Grief's gien his heart an unco kickin' Now every sour-mou'd girnin' blellum And Calvin's folk, are fit to fell him; His quill may draw; mother brood hooded-crow grinning talking fellow He wha could brawlie ward their bellum Up wimpling stately Tweed I've sped, But every joy and pleasure's fled- May I be Slander's common speech, And lastly, streekit out to bleach When I forget thee, Willie Creech, 1 A term of contempt: "She tauld thee weel, thou was a skellum." winding stretched Tam O'Shanter. May never wicked Fortune touzle him! He canty claw ! teaze cheerfully scratch Then to the blessèd New Jerusalem ON INCIVILITY SHEWN HIM AT INVERARY. The Duke of Argyle had an overabundance of guests in the castle, and the innkeeper at Inverary was too much occupied with the surplus to have any attention to spare for passing travellers. Hereupon Burns penned an epigram, which it is to be supposed he left inscribed on one of the windows. We must regret this as a discourtesy towards a most respectable nobleman the more so, as the names of the Duke and Duchess of Argyle stand at the head of the subscription for his Poems. WHOE'ER he be that sojourns here, I pity much his case, Unless he come to wait upon The Lord their God his Grace. |