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

MINSTRELSY OF THE SCOTTISH BORDER.
Where, with the rock's wood-cover'd side,
Where blended hite the ruins green,
Rise turrets in fantastic pride.
And feudal banners flaunt between :
Where the rude ton-ent's brawling course
Was shagg'd with thorn and tangling sloe,
The ashler buttress braves its force.
And ramparts fi-own in battled row.
'Tis night — the shade of keep and spire
Obscurely dance on Evan's stream,
And on the wave the warder's fire
Is chequering the moon-light beam.
Fades slow their light ; the east is grey;
The weary warder leaves his tower
Steeds snort ; uncoupled stag- hounds bay,
And merry hunters quit the bower.
The draw-bridge falls — they hurry out —
Clatters each plank and swinging chain,
As, dashing o'er, the jovial rout
Urge the shy steed, and slack the rein.
First of his troop, the chief rode on ;
His shouting merry -men throng behind ;
The steed of princely Hamilton
Was fleeter than the mountain wind.
From the thick copse the roe-bucks boimd.
The startling red-deer scuds the plain,
For the hoarse bugle's wan-ior sound
Has roused their mountain haunts again.
"Through the huge oaks of Evandale,
Whose Hmbs a thousand years have worn,
What sullen roar comes down the gale,
And drowns the himter's pealing horn?
Mightiest of all the beasts of chace.
That roam in woody Calcdon,
Crashing the forest in his race,
The Mountain Bull comes thundering on.
Fierce, on the hunters' quiver'd band.
He rolls his eyes of swarthy glow.
Spurns, with black hoof and horn, the sand,
And tosses high his mane of snow.