448. MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
Till by old age you gently die,
To live immortal in the sky.
To own my faults I have no will,
For I have done both good and ill ;
Aa to the crime for which I die,
To my laat gasp, Not guilty, I.
But to this magisterial hate
I shall aasign the pristine date.
When the intrepid, matchless Charles
Came here with many Highland Car4
And o’er my top, in public sight,
Proclaim’d aloud his Father’s Right ;
From that day forth it waa agreed,
That I should a8 a %be1 bleed ;
And at this time they think it meet.
To snatch my fabric off the street,
Lest I should tell to them once more
The tale I told ten years before,
At my deatroyers bear no grudge,
Nor do you 8 t h their mason-lodge,
Tho’ well may all by-standers nee
That better masona built up me.
The royal statue in the close
Will share the fate of me, poor Crosa ;
Heav’ns, earth, and sea, all in a range,
Like me, will perish for Ezcliangc“
Few civic events connected with the destruction of old, or the rearing of new buildings, escape the poet’s
notice. One poem records the repair of the Abbey Church ; another mourns the &ling of ita sepulchres ; a
third refers to the laying the foundation-stone of St Bernard’s Mineral Well, 15th September 1760 ; while between
these are lampoons and eulogies on old citizens, most of them long since forgotten. The fate of the Nether
Bow Port, which he witnessed, forms the subject of some of hirr wittiest prose, in ‘&A Sermon preached by
Claudero, on the Condemnation of the Nether Bow Porch of Edinburgh, 9th July 1764, before a crowded
audience.” A brief extract from this will suftice for an example of his humour, which is the more curious, as
what was then extravagant hyperbole, sounds now like the shrewdest foresight :-
(‘ What was too hard for the great ones of the earth, yea even queens, to effect, is now, even now in our day,
accomplished. No patriot duke opposeth the scheme, aa did the p a t hull in the grand senate of our nation ;
therefore the project shall go into execution, and down shall Edina’s lofty porches be hurled with a vengeance.
-Streets shall be extended to the east, regular and beautiful, as far as the Frigate Whins, and Port0 Bello shall
be a lodge for the captom of tea and brandy. The city shall be joined to Leith on the North, and a procession
of &e masons shall there lay the foundation of a spacious harbour. Pequin or Nanquin shall not-be able to
compare with Edina for magnificence. Our city shall be the greatest wonder of the world ; and the fame of
its glory shall reach the distant ends of the earth.
“No more shall the porch resound to the hammer of the cheerful Zaccheus ; and hia neighbours are bathed
in team at the overthrow of his well-tuned anvil.
I‘ The Nether Bow coffee-house of the loyal Smieton can now no longer enjoy ita ancient name with propriety
; and from henceforth !& Revolutiun Cofeehousc shall its name be called.
“ Our gates must be extended wide for accommodating the gilded chariots, which, from the luxury of the age,
are become numeroua-With an impetuous career they jostle against one another in our streets, and the u n w q
foobpasaenger is in danger of being crushed to piecea
