ET. 37.] O BONNY WAS YON ROSY BRIER. 189 The wretch whase doom is, "hope nae mair," August, 1795. O BONNY WAS YON ROSY BRIER. "Written on the blank leaf of a copy of the last edition of my Poems, presented to the lady whom, in so many fictitious reveries of passion, but with the most ardent sentiments of real friendship, I have so often sung under the name of Chloris." - Burns to Mr. Thomson, August, 1795. O BONNY was yon rosy brier That blooms sae far frae haunt o' man ; And bonny she, and ah! how dear! It shaded frae the e'enin' sun. Yon rose-buds in the morning dew, They witnessed in their shade yestreen. All in its rude and prickly bower, That crimson rose, how sweet and fair! 190 FOR AN ALTAR TO INDEPENDENCE. [1795. But love is far a sweeter flower Amid life's thorny path o' care. The pathless wild and wimpling burn, winding brook And I the world, nor wish, nor scorn, INSCRIPTION FOR AN ALTAR TO INDEPENDENCE, AT KERROUGHTREE, THE SEAT OF MR. HERON. Assigned by Dr. Currie to the summer of 1795. THOU of an independent mind, With soul resolved, with soul resigned; Thy own reproach alone dost fear, ET. 37.] THE DUKE OF QUEENSBERRY. 191 THE DUKE OF QUEENSBERRY. Allusion has several times been made to the Duke of Queensberry, as a personage held in hatred by the poet. The two following stanzas were probably a part of the election-ballad of 1790, but omitted from the copy sent by the author to Mr. Graham. How shall I sing Drumlanrig's Grace- Once great in martial story? His forbears' virtues all contrasted The very name of Douglas blasted His that inverted glory. Hate, envy, oft the Douglas bore; ancestors And sunk them in contempt; Follies and crimes have stained the name, But, Queensberry, thine the virgin claim, From aught that's good exempt. 192 THE WOODS OF DRUMLANRIG. [1795. VERSES ON THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WOODS NEAR DRUMLANRIG. In 1795, the Duke of Queensberry stripped his domains of Drumlanrig, in Dumfriesshire, and Neidpath, in Peeblesshire, of all the wood fit for being cut, in order to furnish a dowry for the Countess of Yarmouth, whom he supposed to be his daughter, and to whom, by a singular piece of good-fortune on her part, Mr. George Selwyn, the celebrated wit, also left a fortune, under the same (probably equally mistaken) impression. It fell to the lot of Wordsworth to avenge on the "degenerate Douglas" his leaving old Neidpath SO beggared and outraged." The vindication of nature in the case of Drumlanrig became a pleasing duty to Burns. In one of his rides, he inscribed the following verses on the back of a window-shutter in an inn or toll-house near the scene of the devastations. 66 As on the banks o' wandering Nith, Ae smiling simmer-morn I strayed, And traced its bonny howes and haughs,1 hollows Where linties sang and lambkins played, linnets I sat me down upon a craig, And drank my fill o' fancy's dream; When, from the eddying deep below, Uprose the genius of the stream. 1 Low lands on the margin of a river (the New England "interval.") AT. 37.] THE WOODS OF DRUMLANRIG. Dark, like the frowning rock, his brow, 193 soughs Amang his eaves, the sigh he gave: :"And came ye here, my son," he cried, "To wander in my birken shade? To muse some favourite Scottish theme, Or sing some favourite Scottish maid. "There was a time, it's nae lang syne, Threw broad and dark across the pool; "When glinting, through the trees, appeared The wee white cot aboon the mill, And peacefu' rose its ingle reek, chimney smoke That slowly curled up the hill. But now the cot is bare and cauld, Its branchy shelter's lost and gane, And scarce a stinted birk is left To shiver in the blast its lane." alone "Alas!" said I, "what ruefu' chance Has twined ye o' your stately trees? deprived Has laid your rocky bosom bare? |