8
leaving Scotland and England joined in one. is fulfilled in the late king Willam, who came out of Holland, which, in old times, was vulgarly called the land of Hemp, and the joining of the two nations together, signifies the union.
These things were foretold by the two Scots Prophets in the reign of King Arthur. First, by the marvellous Merlin, who is said to be got by a devil, who ravished a young woman, his mother,in a wood near Coldstream, in the south of Scotland. Afterwards, to the same purpose, these and many more strange things were foretold by Thomas Lermant, vulgarly called Thomas Rhymer, because he spoke all his prophetical sayings in rhyme, and so darkly that the could not be understood until they came to pass.
But of all the prophets that ever were in Scotland, none of them attained to such credit, because many of his predictions referred to our own country, and were accomplished in the last and present century.
Thomas the Rhymer's
PROPHECIES,
IN VERSE.
1Scotland be sad now and lament,
For honours thou hast lost,
But yet rejoice in better times,
Which will repay the cost.
