No. IV. A POEM by the Reverend Mr Bradfute, referred to in the Illustrations: From the Seventeenth Volume of the Statistical History, entitled A MORNING WALK At New Hall, in Mid-Lothian, The Seat of Robert Brown, Esq. Advocate. Written in 1784, By the Reverend Mr BRADFUTE, author of the Statistical Account of Dunsyre in Clydesdale; of an Essay on the Fisheries, in the Transactions of the Highland Society of Scotland; and the intimate friend of Sir James Clerk of Pennecuik. WAKED by the morning rays from fleeting dreams, I leave the couch inviting to repose, To trace the SCENES which Nature spreads around; To please the eye or animate the soul, With recollections drawn from ancient times. We enter first the Glen, adorned with trees, The eye to trace, in Beauty's waving line, The vivid landscape, rich with deepening shades Which here o'erhang the glassy glittering stream, 'Till from the widening vale the country opes. The winding path now leads us thro' the wood, Where Esk pours forth her silver-flowing tide, In sweet retirement, and sequestered shade. We then approach the opening of the trees Where now the rustic swain enjoys the banks, Happy and blythe, not far his humble Cot, Clothed with the shining straw, whose white-washed walls Appear contrasted with the ivy's green. Before the door, the partner of his cares Turns swift the wheel, and tunes the Scottish song, The watchful dog guards well the ripened corns, Falls from the height, and forms the bright cascade, Where hollow rocks surround the foaming pool, And form a shade to screen the mid-day sun. From this we mount the bank to view the Lake, With shining surface drawn from crystal springs, Land-locked and smooth, where oft the finny tribe Rise at the glittering fly with eager taste. We now return, and trace the river's banks, Studded with cowslips, and with copsewoods crowned. Beyond, the prospect's barren all and wild, With hollow glens and deep-sequestered lawns. Now all at once, far up another glen, Or what more near concerned the listening crowd, Slowly we turn and leave these gloomy scenes, Sacred to sighs and deepest heartfelt woe, To seek the pleasing banks and purling rill Where copsewood thickets cheer the wandering eye, Where honeysuckle with the birch entwines. We enter now from hence the western glen, Through which the murmuring Esk pours forth his stream, And view a pastoral and more pleasant scene, You sit at ease, and recollect the song, Following the stream, we view those happy spots, Where GLAUD and SYMON dwelt in times of old, And passed the joke over the nut-brown ale; Where old SIR WILLIAM cheered poor Peggy's heart, And gave her yielding, to her Patie's arms.— And teach mankind the charms of rural life! No. V. ORIGINAL POEMS, On the Scenary of the Gentle Shepherd, THE MANSION. "Gray on the bank "By aged pines, half sheltered from the wind, Macpherson's OSSIAN. Frag. of a N. Tale. WITH pinnacles, and chimneys, rising high Above its roof in numbers great, there stands An aged MANSION, built in gothic taste, Though light and airy as the Greek refined, And wildly suited to the scenes around *. Across the front, there stretches, to the north, * See the Description of NEW-HALL HOUSE; View of the WASHING GREEN; MAP; &c. |