J. F. Campbell Collection > Minstrelsy of the Scottish border

CADYOW CASTLE.
matized, by contemporary historians, according to their religious or party
prejudices. The triumph of Blackwood is unbounded. He not only extols
the pious feat of Bothwellhaugh, " who," he observes, " satisfied, with a single
ounce of lead, him, whose sacrilegious avarice had strij)ped the metropolitan
church of St. Andrew's of its covering;" but he ascribes it to immediate
divine inspiration, and the escape of Hamilton to little less than the miracu-
lous interference of the Deity. — Jehh, Vol. II. p. 263. With equal injustice,
it was, by others, made the ground of a general national reflection ; for, when
Mather urged Berney to assassinate Burleigh, and quoted the examples of
Poltrot and Bothwellhaugh, the other conspirator answered, "that neyther
Poltrot nor Hambleton did attempt their enterpi-yse, without some reason or
consideration to lead them to it : as the one, by liyre, and promise of prefer-
ment or rewarde ; the other, upon desperate mind of revenge, for a lytle
wrong done unto him, as the report goethe, accordinge to the vyle trayterous
dysposysyon of the hoole natyon of the Scottes." — Ihirdin's State Papers, VoL
I. p. 197.
When princely Hamilton's abode
Ennobled Cadyow's Gothic toveers,
The song- went round, the goblet flowed.
And revel sped the laughing hours.
Then thrilling to the harp's gay sound,
So sweetly rung each vaulted wall, ^
And echoed light the dancer's bound,
As mirth and music cheer'd the hall.
But Cadyow's towers, in ruins laid,
And vaults, by ivy mantled o'er,
Thrill to the music of the shade.
Or echo Evan's hoarser roar.
Yet still, of Cadyow's faded fame,
You bid me tell a minstrel tale,
And tune my harp, of Border frame.
On the wild banks of Evandale.
For thou, from scenes of courtly pride,
From pleasure's lighter scenes, canst turn
To draw oblivion's pall aside,
And mark the long-forgotten urn.
Then, noble maid! at thy command,
Again the crumbled halls shall rise ;
Lo ! as on Evan's banks we stand,
The past returns — the present flies. —