For what? to gie their malice skouth On some puir wight, An' hunt him down, o'er right an' ruth, All hail, religion! maid divine! Thus daurs to name thee; To stigmatize false friends of thine Can ne'er defame thee. Tho' blotch't an' foul wi' mony a stain, With trembling voice I tune my strain To join with those, Who boldly dare thy cause maintain In spite of foes: In spite o' crowds, in spite o' mobs, In spite o' dark banditti stabs At worth an' merit, By scoundrels even wi' holy robes, But hellish spirit. O Ayr. my dear, my native ground, Of public teachers, As men, as Christians too renown'd, An' manly preachers. Sir, in that circle you are nam'd; Sir, in that circle you are fam'd; An' some, by whom your doctrine's blam'd, Even, sir, by them your heart's esteem'd (Which gies you honour,) An' winning manner. Pardon this freedom I have ta’en, An' if impertinent I've been, Impute it not, good sir, in ane Whase heart ne'er wrang'd ye, But to his utmost would befriend Ought that belang'd ye. To GAVIN HAMILTON, Esq. Mauchline. (Recommending a boy.) Morgaville, May 3, 1786. I hold it, sir, my bounden duty, Was here to hire yon lad away 'Bout whom ye spak the tither day, An' wad hae don't aff han': But lest he learn the callan tricks, As faith I muckle doubt him, Like scrapin' out auld Crummie's nicks, As tieve then I'd have then, Your clerkship he should sair, Not fitted otherwhere. Altho' I say't it, he's gleg enough, The boy might learn to swear'; * Master Tootie then lived in Mauchline; a dealer in cows. It was his common practice to cut the nicks or markings from the horns of cattle, to disguise their age.-He was an artful, trickcontriving character; hence he is called a snickdrawer. In the poet's In the poet's "Address to the Diel," he styles that august personage an auld, snick drawing dog! E. But then wi' you, he'll be sae taught, I hae na ony fear. Ye'll catechise him every quirk, An' shore him weel wi' hell; An' gar him follow to the kirk -Aye when ye gang yoursel. Frae home this comin' Friday, My word of honour I hae gien, To meet the warld's worm; To try to get the twa to gree, In legal mode an' form: When simple bodies let him; An' if a Devil be at a', In faith he's sure to get him. To Mr. M'ADAM, of Craigen-Gillan, In answer to an obliging letter he sent in the commencement of my poetic career. Sir, o'er a gill I gat your card, I trow it made me proud; See wha taks notice o' the bard! Now deil-ma-care about their jaw, The airlee-earnest-money. I'll cock my nose aboon them a', "Twas noble, sir; 'twas like yoursel, Tho', by his banes wha in a tub And when those legs to gude, warm kail, Wi' welcome canna bear me; A lee dyke side, a sybow-tail, A barley-scone shall cheer me. Heaven spare you lang to kiss the breath And bless your bonnie lasses baith, And God bless young Dunaskin's laird, And may he wear an auld man's beard, To CAPTAIN RIDDEL, Glenriddel. (Extempore Lines on returning a Newspaper.) Ellisland, Monday evening. Your news and review, sir, I've read through and through, sir, With little admiring or blaming : The papers are barren of home-news or foreign, No murders or rapes worth the naming. Diogenes, Our friends the reviewers, those chippers and hewers, Are judges of mortar and stone, sir; But of meet, or unmeet. in a fabric complete, My goose-quill too rude is to tell all your goodness, Would to God I had one like a beam of the sun, To TERRAUGHTY", On his Birth-Day. Health to the Maxwell's vet'ran chief! This natal morn, I see thy life is stuff o' prief, Searce quite half worn. This day thou metes threescore eleven, To ilka poet) On thee a tack o' seven mes seven If envious buckies view wi' sorrow Thy lengthen'd days on this blest morrow, Nine miles an hour, Rake them, like Sodom and Gomorrah, In brunstane stoure! But for thy friends, and they are mony, fries. Mr. Maxwell, of Terraughty, near Dum |