Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt: ... Or the devil, I swear, Shall hunt ye as sportsmen would hunt a poor hare. Whoever gives, unto the Lord he lends'. The saint is melted, pays his fee, and wends; 390 And here the tedious lengthening Journal ends. Ended Sat. evening, 30th Sept. 1769 kew gardens Hail Kew! thou darling of the tuneful nine, Thou eating-house of verse, where poets dine; The temple of the idol of the great, Sacred to council-mysteries of state; Sir Gilbert oft, in dangerous trials known, To make the shame and felony his own, Burns incense on thy altars, and presents The grateful sound of clamorous discontents: In the bold favour of thy goddess vain, He brandishes his sword and shakes his chain. 10 He knows her secret workings and desires, Her hidden attributes and vestal fires; Like an old oak has seen her god-head fall Beneath the wild descendant of Fingal, And happy in the view of promised store Forgot his dignity and held the door. happy genius, comes along, Humming the music of a Highland song: Rough and unpolished in the tricks of state, He plots by instinct, is by nature great. 20 Who, not a mantled herald, can dispute The native grandeur of the house of Bute? Who, not a Caledonian, can deny By instinct all its noble branches lie? 'Tis an entailed estate upon the name, To plunder, plot, and pillage into fame; To live in splendour, infamy, and pride, The guiders of the tools who seem to guide Or starve on honesty, in state their own, And marshal sheep unnoticed and unknown. 30 versed in juntos and intrigues, The fool and statesmen in close union leagues; Sits at the council's head; esteemed at most An useful kind of circulating post, Through whose short stage each future measure's laid, And all the orders of the thane conveyed. He gives the written...
