Oh Willie was a witty wight, And trig and braw: But now they'll busk her like a fright - The stiffest o' them a' he bowed; knowledge dress We've lost a birkie weel worth gowd- fellow-gold Willie's awa'! 1 Now gawkies, tawpies, gowks, and fools, May sprout like simmer puddock-stools toad-stool 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 1 The adjutant o' a' the core — Now worthy Gregory's Latin face, As Rome ne'er saw; They a' maun meet some ither place row 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 Medicine; Alexander Fraser Tytler, afterwards Lord Woodhouselee; Dr. William Greenfield, professor of rhetoric in the Edinburgh University; Henry Mackenzie, author of The Man of Feel ng; and Dugald Stewart, professor of moral philosophy. And Calvin's folk, are fit to fell him; And self-conceited critic skellum1 His quill may draw ; 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 skelum." winding stretched Tam o'Shanter. May never wicked Fortune touzle him! He cany claw ! teaze cheerfully scratch 'Then to the blessèd New Jerusalem Fleet wing awa'! 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. There's naething here but Highland pride, COMPOSED ON LEAVING A PLACE IN THE HIGHLANDS WHERE HE HAD BEEN KINDLY ENTERTAINED. WHEN Death's dark stream I ferry o'er- 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. |