ON THE DEATH OF ROBERT RIDDEL, ESQ.,
OF GLEN-RIDDEL, APRIL, 1794.

No more, ye warblers of the wood, no more,
Nor pour your descant, grating, on my soul:
Thou young-eyed Spring, gay in thy verdant stole,
More welcome were to me grim Winter's wildest roar.
How can ye charm, ye flowers, with all your dyes?
Ye blow upon the sod that wraps my friend:
How can I to the tuneful strain attend?

That strain flows round the untimely tomb where
Riddel lies.

Yes, pour, ye warblers, pour the notes of woe,
And soothe the Virtues weeping on this bier:
The Man of Worth, who has not left his peer,
Is in his narrow house forever darkly low.
Thee, Spring, again with joy shall others greet;
Me, memory of my loss will only meet.

ON THE DEATH OF SIR JAMES HUNTER BLAIR.

THE lamp of day, with ill-presaging glare,

Dim, cloudy, sunk beneath the western wave;
The inconstant blast howl'd though the darkening air,
And hollow whistled in the rocky cave.

Lone, as I wander'd by each cliff and dell,

Once the loved haunts of Scotia's royal train;1
Or mused where limpid streams, once hallow'd well,2
Or mouldering ruins mark'd the sacred fane;3

The increasing blast roared round the beetling rocks,
The clouds, swift-wing'd, flew o'er the starry sky,
The groaning trees untimely shed their locks,
And shooting meteors caught the startled eye;

The paly moon rose in the livid east,

And 'mong the cliffs disclosed a stately form,

The King's Park, at Holyrood-house.-2 St. Anthony's Well.-3 St. Anthony's Chapel.

In weeds of woe that frantic beat her breast,
And mix'd her wailings with the raving storm.
Wild to my heart the filial pulses glow,

'Twas Caledonia's trophied shield I view'd;
Her form majestic droop'd in pensive woe,
The lightning of her eye in tears imbued.
Reversed that spear, redoubtable in war,
Reclined that banner, erst in fields unfurl'd,
That like a deathful meteor gleam'd afar,

And braved the mighty monarchs of the world: "My patriot Son fills an untimely grave!"

With accents wild, and lifted arms, she cried— "Low lies the hand that oft was stretch'd to save, Low lies the heart that swell'd with honest pride! "A weeping country joins a widow's tear,

The helpless poor mix with the orphan's cry; The drooping Arts surround their Patron's bier, And grateful Science heaves the heartfelt sigh. "I saw my sons resume their ancient fire;

I saw fair Freedom's blossoms richly blow; But, ah! how hope is born but to expire! Relentless Fate has laid this Guardian low. "My patriot falls—and shall he lie unsung, While empty greatness saves a worthless name? No; every Muse shall join her tuneful tongue, And future ages hear his growing fame. "And I will join a mother's tender cares,

Thro' future times to make his virtues last, That distant years may boast of other Blairs."She said, and vanish'd with the sweeping blast.

ON READING, IN A NEWSPAPER, THE DEATH OF JOHN M'LEOD, ESQ.,

BROTHER TO A YOUNG LADY, A PARTICULAR FRIEND OF THE AUTHOR'S.

SAD thy tale, thou idle page,

And rueful thy alarms:

Death tears the brother of her love
From Isabella's arms.

Sweetly deck'd with pearly dew
The morning rose may blow;
But cold successive noontide blasts
May lay its beauties low.
Fair on Isabella's morn

The sun propitious smiled;
But, long ere noon, succeeding clouds
Succeeding hopes beguiled.

Fate oft tears the bosom chords
That Nature finest strung:
So Isabella's heart was form'd,
And so that heart was wrung.

Dread Omnipotence alone

Can heal the wound he gave;
Can point the brimful grief-worn eyes
To scenes beyond the grave.
Virtue's blossoms there shall blow,
And fear no withering blast,
There Isabella's spotless worth
Shall happy be at last.

ELEGY ON CAPTAIN MATTHEW HENDERSON,

A GENTLEMAN WHO HELD THE PATENT FOR HIS HONORS IMMEDIATELY FROM ALMIGHTY GOD.

But now his radiant course is run,

For Matthew's course was bright:
His soul was like the glorious sun,
A matchless, heavenly light!

O DEATH! thou tyrant fell and bloody!
The muckle Devil wi' a woodie1

Haurl thee hame to his black smiddie,2
O'er hurcheon' hides,

And like stock-fish come o'er his studdie*
Wi' thy auld sides!

A halter.- Smithy.-3 Hedgehog.- An anvil. An allusion is here had to the beating of dried stock-fish, to make them tender.

He's gane! he's gane! he's frae us torn,
The ae best fellow e'er was born!
Thee, Matthew, Nature's sel' shall mourn
By wood and wild,

Where, haply, Pity strays forlorn,
Frae man exiled.

Ye hills, near neebors o' the starns,1
That proudly cock your cresting cairns 2
Ye cliffs, the haunts of sailing yearns,
Where Echo slumbers!

8

Come join, ye Nature's sturdiest_bairns,*
My wailing numbers!

Mourn ilka grove the cushat kens!
Ye hazelly shaws and briery dens!
Ye burnies, wimplin" down your glens,
Wi' todlin' din,

6

Or foaming strang, wi' hasty stens,

Frae linn to linn !1o

Mourn, little harebells owre the lee;
Ye stately foxgloves fair to see;
Ye woodbines hanging bonnilie,

In scented bowers;

Ye roses on your thorny tree,

The first o' flowers!

At dawn, when every grassy blade
Droops with a diamond at his head,
At even, when beans their fragrance shed
I' th' rustling gale,

Ye maukins," whiddin" thro' the glade,
Come, join my wail!

Mourn, ye wee songsters o' the wood;
Ye grouse that crap the heather bud;
Ye curlews calling through a clud;13
Ye whistling plover;

13

1 Stars.-2 A heap of stones piled up in the form of a cone.

Eagles: they are here called "sailing yearns," in allusion to their flying without that motion of the wings which is common to most other birds.

4 Children. The dove, or wood-pigeon.-6 Rivulets.-7 Meandering.— 8 Wimpling.-9 To rear as a horse.-10 A water-fall.-11 Hares.-12 Running as a hare.--13 Cloud.

And mourn, ye whirring' paitrick brood.
He's gane forever!

Mourn, sooty coots, and speckled teals,
Ye fisher herons, watching eels;
Ye duck and drake, wi' airy wheels
Circling the lake;

Ye bitterns, till the quagmire reels,
Rair for his sake!

3

Mourn, clamoring craiks, at close o' day,
'Mang fields o' flowering clover gay!
And when ye wing your annual way
Frae our cauld shore,

Tell thae' far warlds, wha lies in clay,
Wham we deplore.

5

Ye howlets, frae your ivy bower,
In some auld tree, or eldritch tower,
What time the moon, wi' silent glower,
Sets up her horn,

Wail through the weary midnight hour
Till waukrife' morn!

O rivers, forests, hills, and plains!
Oft have ye heard my canties strains:
But now, what else for me remains
But tales of woe;

And frae my een the drapping rains
Maun ever flow!

Mourn, Spring, thou darling of the year!
Ilk' cowslip cup shall kep1 a tear:
Thou, Simmer, while each corny spear
Shoots up his head,

Thy gay, green, flowery tresses shear,
For him that's dead!

Thou, Autumn, wi' thy yellow hair,
In grief thy sallow mantle tear!
Thou, Winter, hurling through the air
The roaring blast,

The noise made by the wings of a covey of partridges.- To rosi.Birds called in England landrails, in Scotland, corn-craiks.- Those.Owls.- Ghastly.-7 The waking hour.-8 Cheerful.- Each.-10 Catch.