WILLIE SMELLIE to Crochallan came,

The old cocked hat, the gray surtout, the same;
His bristling beard just rising in its might;
"Twas four long nights and days till shaving night;
His uncombed grizzly locks, wild staring, thatched
A head for thought profound and clear unmatched
Yet though his caustic wit was biting rude,
His heart was warm, benevolent, and good.

VERSES UNDER THE PORTRAIT OF FERGUSSON.

SHAME on ungrateful man, that can be pleased,
And yet can starve the author of the pleasure!
Oh thou, my elder brother in misfortune,
By far my elder brother in the Muses,
With tears I pity thy unhappy fate!
Why is the Bard unpitied by the world,
Yet has so keen a relish of its pleasures?

Then horn for horn they stretch and strive,

SHAME ON the hindmost, on they drive,

above

worthy

long

clean

any

smoking

Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve stomachs, by and by

PROLOGUE, SPOKEN BY MR WOODS ON HIS
BENEFIT NIGHT.

Monday, April 16, 1787

WHEN by a generous Public's kind acclaim,
That dearest meed is granted--honest fame :
When here your favour is the actor's lot,
Nor even the man in private life forgot;
What breast so dead to heavenly Virtue's glow,
But heaves impassioned with the grateful throe.

Poor is the task to please a barbarous throng,
It needs no Siddons' powers in Southern's song;
But here an ancient nation famed afar,
For genius, learning high, as great in war-
Hail, CALEDONIA, name for ever dear!
Before whose son's I'm honoured to appear!
Where every science-every nobler art-
That can inform the mind, or mend the heart,
Is known; as grateful nations oft have found
Far as the rude barbarian marks the bound.
Philosophy, no idle pedant dream,

Here holds her search by heaven-taught Reason's beam
Here History paints with elegance and force
The tide of Empire's fluctuating course;
Here Douglas forms wild Shakspeare into plan,
And Harley* rouses all the god in man,

When well-formed Taste and sparkling Wit unite
With manly Lore, or female Beauty bright
(Beauty, where faultless symmetry and grace,
Can only charm us in the second place),
Witness my heart, how oft with panting fear,
As on this night, I've met these judges here!
But still the hope Experience taught to live,
Equal to judge-you're candid to forgive.
No hundred-headed Riot here we meet,
With Decency and Law beneath his feet;
Nor Insolence assumes fair Freedom's name;
Like CALEDONIANS, you applaud or blame.

Oh thou dread Power! whose empire-giving hand
Has oft been stretched to shield the honoured land!
Strong may she glow with all her ancient fire!
May every son be worthy of his sire!

Firm may she rise with generous disdain
At Tyranny's or direr Pleasure's chain!

Still self-dependent in her native shore,

Bold may she brave grim Danger's loudest roar,

Till Fate the curtain drops on worlds to be no more.

.