John Wilson

“ And ruin floats triumphant o'er the dales.
All nature mourns, till Phœbus' cheerful ray
Dispels the darkness, and restores the day.
Then nature smiles; wide flow from every grove
The fragrant gales of health, and songs of love.
Earth wears a livelier green: Cerulean skies
Smile soft; the wood-flowers glow with brighter dies.
Their silver smoothness Clyde's fair floods resume,
And groves and fields with fresher lustre bloom. ”

“ So rolls majestic Clyde his silver way,
While subject-streams confess his sovereign sway. 240
The labouring steeds, and steers, and sturdy swains,
Imprint the long deep furrows on the plains;
A stately maiden on her graceful head,
By taper neck supported, hears the seed;
Which wide the sower strews with lavish hand;
While the harsh harrow following smooths the land.
What support nature craves, their labour yields,
And kings and queens are nourished by the fields. ”

“ Health decks their comely cheeks with rosy grace,
And innocence plays cheerful o'er their face:
Love lends his pinions, swift the shepherd springs,
And to the fold the milky mothers brings. 140
Then frolic nymphs and swains with sportful glee;
Pure are their hearts, and their behaviour free:
The foaming pails, which snowy floods o'erflow,
Raised on their heads, they singing homeward go.
Such scenes adorn bright Dara's silver course,
Who amorous yields to Clyde's inferior force;
Who girds Leadhills, for wealthy mines renowned,
And Crawford's spacious downs, where flocks abound ”

“ But when in wrath majestic Clyde o'erflows,
Amidst the flood green shake their trembling rows.
Here Avon pours, who his long current leads
Through old Strathaven, famed for generous steeds:
Through pastures, fields, and towns he rolls along; 690
The soil is fruitful, and the swains are strong. ”

“ Labouring with heat, breathes steaming vapours forth.
Heaven's beauteous face a dismal darkness shrouds,
And black descends a solid arch of clouds.
The flocks forsake the fields in flowery pride,
The silent birds in leafy coverts hide;
The whispering winds are hushed, and dumb the flood,
While nature faints before the frown of God. ”

“ When Phœbus in the east, ascending bright, 880
Unlocks the treasuries of celestial light,
The vales and plains a golden deluge fills,
Which brightens all the stream, and gilds the hills.
Clear shine the fields, in flowing splendours drowned;
The waving radiance boundless rolls around;
A shining sea, from Tinto's cloudy brow
To northern mountains of perennial snow.
How instantaneous flies the rapid sight
Through all the wide, the boundless fields of light! ”

“ On Clyde's delightful banks their mansions rise,
And o'er the stream behold the southern skies.
Where the fair Maidens glide with silent force,
And, close embracing, end their gentle course; 210
Unbounded plenty overflows the plain,
Each bending stalk presents a load of grain;
And every kind a different lustre yields,
With varied beauty to adorn the fields.
See that broad plain which deepest verdure wears ”

“ While circles in their veins their sovereign's blood.
Hence bold Bargenny and Belhaven rose;
Hence, Haddington, thy noble lineage flows;
Hence sprung rich Abercorn, a mighty peer,
And Selkirk, ever to the muses dear.
Yet most the name adorns their native Clyde,
Where frequent shine their domes on every side;
Whence, moving graceful, all the active race 760
Rush with their sprightly chief to urge the chase;
Where slily lurking mid his caverned rocks,
By Clyde's fair banks, slow creeps the crafty fox:
Sagacious hounds his tainted track pursue,
He doubles, winds, and shuns the open view. ”

“ While doves in deeper notes express their loves,
And with their amorous cooing fill the murmuring groves.
Love wakes the melody, their voices tunes,
Swells every note, each brightening pinion prunes.
Through all the dancing air the music floats ”

“ Swarming with life, the weltering bottom heaves,
And glittering swarms crowd the encumbered waves:
Broad shoals, on shoals in youthful prime, are rolled;
Their azure armour shines with studs of gold;
Bedropt with purple hues, and scarlet bright,
They shoot amidst the foods, a glorious fight.
Where these high walls round wide inclosures run, 840
Forbid the winter, and invite the sun,
Wild strays the race of bisons, white as snow,
Hills, dales and woods re-echo when they low. ”

“ Less huge the hills, the steeps less dreadful seem,
O'er dewy valleys shoots a silver gleam;
Brighter and wider dart the reddening rays,
Till the pale stars expire amidst the blaze,
And all the east, the veil of clouds unroll'd,
Flames bright in purple and celestial gold.
Then glorious as a hero drest for war,
Forth issues Phœbus in his radiant car;
Inflames the heavens, and rushing on his way,
O'erflows the world with blazing boundless day. ”

“ Too proud before an angry heaven to bend:
His leaves unshaken, winter's rage defy;
He shades a field, and heaves a wood on high;
Glories in stubborn strength, when tempests roar,
And scorns to yield, save to the thunder's power. ”

“ The kindest friend, with the sincerest heart.
As mild his manners as his soul was brave;
He never frowned but when he marked a knave.
No more he bids the swains' contentions cease,
Restrains their rage, or smiles them into peace. ”

“ With formidable groves of pointed horns.
Soon as the hound's fierce clamour strikes his ear,
He throws his arms behind, and owns his fear;
Sweeps o'er the unprinted grass, the wind outflies;—
Hounds, horses, hunters, horns, still sound along the skies;
Fierce as a storm they pour along the plain; 790
Their lively chief still foremost of the train;
With unremitting ardour leads the chace;—
He, trembling, safety seeks in every place;
Drives through the thicket, scales the lofty steep;
Bounds o'er the hills, or darts through valleys deep ”

“ Proud Chattelherault's tall turrets strike the sky,
Mid artificial lawns extending, green,
While gay parterres enamelled spread between;
Fenced with broad waving woods of varied hue;
A sweet retreat, with all the world in view.
So Paradise, with faultless beauty crowned,
On mountains rose, which shook with woods around.
Here, deep-ingulphed in rocks, fair Avon flows, 700
While lines of crystal wander down their brows;
Where sportive nature all the forms has shown
Of vegetation in a growing stone ”

“ His weary nymphs and swains, behold him call
To dear-earned banquet in his rustic hall.
With ale and music their plain hearts they cheer,
Dance, and forget the labours of the year.
Such copious plenty crowns Carnwath's domains,
And the fair fields where noble Hyndford reigns: 300
For where vast Tinto heaves his bulk on high,
His shoulders bear the clouds, his head the sky ”

“ And after flutter through the fields of air;
And some in verdant leaves their eggs conceal,
Where tumours from the wound around them swell.
Of these, the gnats with speckled wings we find,
And crests adorned, a small but angry kind! 270
In living columns from the flood they rise,
With turbid motion, trembling to the skies ”

“ For this they lengthened out the mansion's date,
Till the supporting earth should yield to fate:
Or if it fell, propitiously decreed,
A nobler fabric always should succeed.
In vain may time, may foes their rage renew,
No earthly power shall Douglas e'er subdue. ”