Part 72

I’ll be merry and free, I’ll be sad for naebody; Naebody cares for me, I care for naebody.

Lines Written In Friars’-Carse Hermitage

Glenriddel Hermitage, June 28th, 1788.

Thou whom chance may hither lead, Be thou clad in russet weed, Be thou deckt in silken stole, Grave these maxims on thy soul.

Life is but a day at most, Sprung from night, in darkness lost: Hope not sunshine every hour, Fear not clouds will always lour.

Happiness is but a name, Make content and ease thy aim, Ambition is a meteor-gleam; Fame, an idle restless dream;

Peace, the tend’rest flow’r of spring; Pleasures, insects on the wing; Those that sip the dew alone— Make the butterflies thy own; Those that would the bloom devour— Crush the locusts, save the flower.

For the future be prepar’d, Guard wherever thou can’st guard; But thy utmost duly done, Welcome what thou can’st not shun. Follies past, give thou to air, Make their consequence thy care: Keep the name of Man in mind, And dishonour not thy kind. Reverence with lowly heart Him, whose wondrous work thou art; Keep His Goodness still in view, Thy trust, and thy example, too.

Stranger, go! Heaven be thy guide! Quod the Beadsman of Nidside.

To Alex. Cunningham, ESQ., Writer

Ellisland, Nithsdale, July 27th, 1788.

My godlike friend—nay, do not stare, You think the phrase is odd-like; But God is love, the saints declare, Then surely thou art god-like.

And is thy ardour still the same? And kindled still at Anna? Others may boast a partial flame, But thou art a volcano!

Ev’n Wedlock asks not love beyond Death’s tie-dissolving portal; But thou, omnipotently fond, May’st promise love immortal!

Thy wounds such healing powers defy, Such symptoms dire attend them, That last great antihectic try— Marriage perhaps may mend them.

Sweet Anna has an air—a grace, Divine, magnetic, touching: She talks, she charms—but who can trace The process of bewitching?

Song.—Anna, Thy Charms

Anna, thy charms my bosom fire, And waste my soul with care; But ah! how bootless to admire, When fated to despair!

Yet in thy presence, lovely Fair, To hope may be forgiven; For sure ’twere impious to despair So much in sight of heaven.

The Fete Champetre

Tune—“Killiecrankie.”

O Wha will to Saint Stephen’s House, To do our errands there, man? O wha will to Saint Stephen’s House O’ th’ merry lads of Ayr, man?

Or will we send a man o’ law? Or will we send a sodger? Or him wha led o’er Scotland a’ The meikle Ursa-Major?^1

Come, will ye court a noble lord, Or buy a score o’lairds, man? For worth and honour pawn their word, Their vote shall be Glencaird’s,^2 man. Ane gies them coin, ane gies them wine, Anither gies them clatter: Annbank,^3 wha guessed the ladies’ taste, He gies a Fete Champetre.

When Love and Beauty heard the news, The gay green woods amang, man; Where, gathering flowers, and busking bowers, They heard the blackbird’s sang, man: A vow, they sealed it with a kiss, Sir Politics to fetter; As their’s alone, the patent bliss, To hold a Fete Champetre.

Then mounted Mirth, on gleesome wing O’er hill and dale she flew, man; Ilk wimpling burn, ilk crystal spring, Ilk glen and shaw she knew, man: She summon’d every social sprite, That sports by wood or water, On th’ bonie banks of Ayr to meet, And keep this Fete Champetre.

Cauld Boreas, wi’ his boisterous crew, Were bound to stakes like kye, man, And Cynthia’s car, o’ silver fu’, Clamb up the starry sky, man: Reflected beams dwell in the streams, Or down the current shatter; The western breeze steals thro’the trees, To view this Fete Champetre.

How many a robe sae gaily floats! What sparkling jewels glance, man! To Harmony’s enchanting notes, As moves the mazy dance, man. The echoing wood, the winding flood, Like Paradise did glitter, When angels met, at Adam’s yett, To hold their Fete Champetre.