Series 1 > Grameid: an heroic poem descriptive of the campaign of Viscount Dundee in 1689, and other pieces

75
640-658] SCOTI GRAMEIDOS LIB. II.
Et Vemiae Comraeque domos, et moenia Garthae
Transit et hirsutis squalentia rura frutetis,
Ferturque ad Ranochum loca per salebrosa paludem.
Inde lacum longe fluctantem gurgite vasto
Circuit, et tristes boreali turbine silvas;
Ingrediturque viam Nessi quae ducit ad urbexn.
Fessaque gramineis dum corpora curat in arvis,
Praemittit lectos juga per vicina maniplos,
Qui nemora et montes et rura latentia lustrant.
Illi jussa ducis peragunt, missique reportant
Nullum in conspectu, aut latitantem vallibus hostem.
Gramus signa j ubet tolli et sic incipit ore :
‘ O socii mecum per densa pericula vecti,
Haec est ilia dies, qua duri in praelia Martis
Hostem expectabam infestis concurrere signis.
Si quidquam in laeva saltaret parte mamillae
Ductori huic Batavo, nobis sese ille dedisset
Obvium, et adversum, cum nos via ducit ad arcton
Invia, et infractas cohibent nemora alta cohortes.
Weem, Comrie, and Garth, and thence through wilds, and by rugged
paths, to Loch Rannoch. Then, making a circuit round the long
reach of its waters, he moves through thickets stunted by* the
cold blasts, and emerges upon the road1 to Inverness. While
here, on the sward, the weary troopers find rest, the scouts recon¬
noitre hill and dale, and report no enemy in sight. Again he
bids the standard be raised, and thus speaks: ‘ Oh my comrades !
borne with me through the thick of danger, this is the day when
I looked for the enemy with floating banner. If the Dutch general
possessed any spirit he would have been here to oppose our march
1 The route lay, I think, by a short but rugged cut towards Kinloch Ran¬
noch, and as he advanced round the loch he would cut the road—if such existed
—towards Tummel Bridge, from which there lay a track to Dalnacardoch, on
the great north road to Inverness. Perhaps, as he advanced along the road on
the north side of the loch, he would strike the wild path from Annat to Dalna-
spidal on the same road to Inverness. This path might be called, by a euphemism,
the road to Inverness. Claverhouse was here in a position where Mackay
might have attacked him from the north road. Passing along the north side of
Loch Rannoch, he would find a track towards the south end of Loch Treig
answering in its features to the description in the text. From Loch Treig-head,
by going a little to the west, and then nor’-west-by-north, his track would bring
him, through such scenes as are described, to Glenroy.—See Preface, on Roads.