21
Silent be stepped on, pair fallow !
Listening to his guide before,
Owre green knowe and ilowery hallow,
Till they reached the cot-house door.
Laigh it was, yet sweet though humble,
Decked wi’ honeysuckle round;
Clear below, Esk's waters rumble,
Deep glens murmuring back the sound.
Melvilles towers,❋ sac white and stately,
Dim by gloainin’ glint to view;
Through Lasswade’s dark woods keek sweetly
Skies sae red, and lift sae blue.
Entering now, in transport mingle
Mither fond and happy wean,
Smiling round a earity ingle,
Bleazin’ on a clean hearth-stane.
“Soldier, welcome! come be cheerie,
Here ye’se rest and tak your bed;
Faint, waes me! ye seem, and weary,
Pale’s your cheek sae lately red.”
“Changed I am,” sighed Willie till her;
“ Changed, nae doubt, as changed can be!
Yet, alas! does Jeanie Miller
Nought o’ Willie Gairlace see?”
Ha'e ye marked the dews o’ morning,
Glittering in the sunny ray,
Quickly fa’, when, without warning,
Rough blasts cam and shook the spray?
❋Melville Castle, the seat of the Bight Honourable
Henry Dundas, afterwards Viscount Melville.
