Series 1 > Miscellany of the Scottish History Society (Second volume)

284
A SCOTTISH JOURNIE
You’d thinke they playd at push pinne here with men.
But sleepe disguises all things here below.
In sleepe no man can vice from vertue know,
It hath a legislative power to bring
On equall tearmes the beggar and the king.
And this was it that made us nothing nice
To venture boldly on fowle sheetes and lice.
How subtile are those natures which doe breed
Theire children up to hardnesse and to need,
From which originall they copy out
Enough to make both gallant men and stout.
Whilst I contemplate thus I am left alone.
My Lord and all the rest are lodgd and gone,
And now I wisht I had a place to try
How people sleepe that in all lodgings lye.
My Hostesse promises upon her word
I shall ha ’th’ best the countrey can aford,
And bids me follow her, I made account
Shee’d shew me paradise, soe up we mount
A ladder to a loft, she turnes a key
And opens me a roome, where I dare say.
The good old wife sometimes did take delight
To noynt herselfe and fly abroad i’ th’ night.
I’ th’ top o’ th’ roofe there was a hole the which
Was sure a muse1 for some brave active witch.
In this religious cell I found a bedd
Which might have bin a coffin for the dead.
So blacke the sheets were, and the chamber smelt
As if plebean divells there had dwelt.
Here for my sinnes was I condemnd to lye,
Nor durst I once demaund a reason why.
My rogueish boy laught heartily to see
With what a squeemish phisiognomie
I lookt about mee, have you scene them stripp
A Bridewell novice sentenc’d to the whip.
Why just with such an untun’d verjuice face
Did I put of my cloathes, and not apace,
Though now it was high time for rest to aske
Truce of our worldly cares, and to unmaske
1 Muse or meuse, an opening in a fence or thicket through which a hare
other beast of sport is accustomed to pass.—Nares, Glossary.