A FAREWELL.

FAREWELL, dear Friend! may guid luck hit you,
And, mang her favourites admit you!
If e'er Detraction shore to smit you,

May nane believe him!

And ony De'il that thinks to get you,

Good Lord, deceive him!

ON A FRIEND.

AN honest man here lies at rest,
As e'er God with his image blest;
The friend of man, the friend of truth,
The friend of age, and guide of youth:
Few hearts like his, with virtue warm'd,
Few heads with knowledge so inform'd:
If there's another world, he lives in bliss
If there is none, he made the best of this.

;

A VERSE

COMPOSED AND REPEATED BY BURNS, TO THE MASTER OF THE HOUSE, ON TAKING LEAVE AT A PLACE IN THE HIGHLANDS, WHERE HE HAD BEEN HOSPITABLY ENTERTAINED.

WHEN death's dark stream I ferry o'er,
A time that surely shall come,

In Heaven itself I'll ask no more
Than just a Highland welcome.

VERSES

WRITTEN ON A WINDOW OF THE INN AT CARRON.

WE came na here to view your warks

In hopes to be mair wise,

But only, lest we gang to hell,

It may be nae surprise.

But when we tirled at your door,

Your porter dought na hear us;

Sae may, shou'd we to hell's yetts come,
Your billy Satan sair us!

LINES

WRITTEN ON A PANE OF GLASS IN THE INN AT MOFFAT.

Ask why God made the gem so small,
An' why so huge the granite?

Because God meant mankind should set
That higher value on it.

EPIGRAM

WRITTEN AT INVERARY.

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,
And Highland scab and hunger;

If Providence has sent me here,
"Twas surely in his anger.

A TOAST

GIVEN AT A MEETING OF THE DUMFRIES-SHIRE VOLUNTEERS, HELD TO COMMEMORATE THE ANNIVERSARY OF RODNEY'S

VICTORY, APRIL 12, 1782.

INSTEAD of a Song, boys, I'll give you a Toast-
Here's the memory of those on the twelfth that we lost :
That we lost, did I say? nay, by heav'n, that we found,
For their fame it shall last while the world goes round.
The next in succession, I'll give you the King,
Whoe'er would betray him, on high may he swing!
And here's the grand fabric, our free Constitution,
As built on the base of the great Revolution;
And longer with Politics, not to be cramm'd,
Be Anarchy curs'd, and Tyranny damn'd;
And who would to Liberty e'er prove disloyal,
May his son be a hangman, and he his first trial!

ΙΟ

EXTEMPORE, ON MR. WILLIAM SMELLIE,

1

AUTHOR OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURAL HISTORY, AND MEMBER OF THE ANTIQUARIAN AND ROYAL

SOCIETIES OF EDINBURGH.

CROCHALLAN came,

The old cock'd hat, the grey surtout-the same;
His bristling beard just rising in its might,-
"Twas four long nights and days to shaving night;
His uncomb'd grizzly locks wild staring, thatch'd
A head for thought profound and clear, unmatch'd:
Yet, tho' his caustic wit was biting rude,
His heart was warm, benevolent, and good.

EXTEMPORE TO MR. SYME,

ON REFUSING TO DINE WITH HIM, AFTER HAVING BEEN PROMISED THE FIRST OF COMPANY, AND THE

FIRST OF COOKERY.

No more of your guests, be they titled or not,
And cookery the first in the nation;
Who is proof to thy personal converse and wit,
Is proof to all other temptation.

TO MR. SYME,

WITH A PRESENT OF A DOZEN OF PORTER.

O, HAD the malt thy strength of mind,
Or hops the flavour of thy wit,
'Twere drink for first of human kind,
A gift that e'en for Syme were fit.
Jerusalem Tavern, Dumfries.

TO JOHN M'MURDO, ESQ.

O, COULD I give thee India's wealth,
As I this trifle send!

Because thy joy in both would be
To share them with a friend.

But golden sands did never grace
The Heliconian stream;

Then take what gold could never buy-
An honest Bard's esteem.

L

ON MISS JESSY LEWARS.

WRITTEN IN PENCIL ON THE BACK OF A MENAGERIE BILL.

TALK not to me of savages
From Afric's burning sun,

No savage e'er could rend my heart,
As, Jessy, thou hast done.

But Jessy's lovely hand in mine,
A mutual faith to plight,

Not ev'n to view the heavenly choir
Would be so blest a sight.

EPITAPH ON MISS JESSY LEWARS.

SAY, Sages, what's the charm on earth
Can turn Death's dart aside?

It is not purity and worth,

Else Jessy had not died.

THE RECOVERY OF MISS JESSY LEWARS.

BUT rarely seen since Nature's birth,

The natives of the sky;
Yet still one seraph's left on earth,
For Jessy did not die.

TO DR. MAXWELL,

ON MISS JESSY STAIG'S RECOVERY.

MAXWELL, if merit here you crave,
That merit I deny :

You save fair Jessy from the grave?
An Angel could not die.