MEMORIALS O F EDINBURGH. -
PART 11.
* LOCAL ANTIQUITIES AND TRADITIONS.
Ettittburgb.
Install'd on hills, her head neare starrye bowres,
Shines Edinburgh, proud of protecting powers :
Justice defends her heart ; Religion east
With temples ; Mara with towres doth guard the west ;
Fresh Nymphes and Cerea serving, waite upon her;
And Thetis, tributarie, doth her honour.
The sea doth Venice @hake; Borne Tiber beaks ;
Whilst She bot scornes her vassall watteres' threata.
For scepters no where staudes a towne more fitt,
Nor place where towne, world's Queene, may fairer sitt.
Bot this Thy praise is, above all most brave,
No man di& e'er diffame Thee bot a slave.
DTummond of Hawthmdm,
Prom the Latin of Dr Arthur lohnrtonc.
The rhady lane, the hedgerow, and the wood,
And ripening fields have won the poet’s heart,
Until the love of Nature is a part
Of his soul’s being ;-yet own I the mood
That seeks out nature in the crowded mart,
Nor thinks the poet’s teaching unwithstood,
Because, within the thicker solitude
Of peopled cities, fancy plays its part :-
“Man made the town,” and therefore fellowman
May garner there, within its dusky lanes
Of pent-up life, an airy empyrean,
Dwelling apart, in sympathy, where wanes
The light of present being, while the vast
“ Has been” awakes again,-the being of the past.
Hoar relic of the past, whose ancient spire
Climbs heavenward amid the crowded mart,
Keeping as ’twere within the city’s heart,
One shrine where reverent thoughts may yet retire ;
And dreaming fancies, from the world apart,
Wander among old tales of which thou art
Sole relic. Is it vain that we inquire
Somewhat of scenes where thou hast borne a part ?
Mine own St Oiles I
And superatitions,-even of the heart,-
Thyself has changed some wrinkles for a smart
Now suit of modern fashion. To my eye
The old one best beseemed thee, yet the more
Cling I to what remains, the SOUoIf yore.
Old fashions have gone by,
