id="n_57">
57
Diogenes.
58
Alluding to the newspaper account of a certain royal sailor’s amour
59
Cuchullin’s dog in Ossian’s Fingal.
60
A noted tavern at the auld Brig end.
61
The two steeples.
62
The gos-hawk or falcon.
63
A noted ford, just above the Auld Brig.
64
The banks of Garpal Water is one of the few places in the West of Scotland, where those fancy-scaring beings, known by the name of Ghaists, still continue pertinaciously to inhabit.
65
The source of the river Ayr.
66
A small landing-place above the large key.
67
A well known performer of Scottish music on the violin.
68
The Man of Feeling, by Mackenzie.
69
Edinburgh.
70
The Chamber of Commerce in Edinburgh, of which Creech was Secretary.
71
Many literary gentlemen were accustomed to meet at Mr. Creech’s house at breakfast.
72
The King’s Park, at Holyrood-house.
73
St. Anthony’s Well.
74
St. Anthony’s Chapel.
75
His mare.
76
This Poem was written a short time after the publication of M’Gill’s Essay.
77
Dr. M’Gill.
78
John Ballantyne.
79
Robert Aiken.
80
Dr. Dalrymple.
81
Mr. Russell.
82
Mr. M’Kinlay.
83
Mr. Moody, of Riccarton.
84
Mr. Auld of Mauchline.
85
Mr. Grant, of Ochiltree.
86
Mr. Young, of Cumnock.
87
Mr. Peebles, Ayr.
88
Dr. Andrew Mitchell, of Monkton.
89
Mr. Stephen Young, of Barr.
NOTES
1
Dr. Young.
2
A neibor herd-callan.
3
VARIATION.
‘She was nae get o’ runted rams,
Wi’ woo’ like goats an’ legs like trams;
She was the flower o’ Farlie lambs,
A famous breed!
Now Robin, greetin, chews the hams
O’ Mailie dead.’
4
Ramsay.
5
A peculiar sort of whiskey.
6
Buchan’s Domestic Medicine.
7
The grave-digger.
8
The fore-horse on the left-hand in the plough.
9
The hindmost on the left-hand in the plough.
10
Kilmarnock.
11
The hindmost horse on the right-hand in the plough.
12
A street so called, which faces the tent in Mauchline.
13
Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
14
Alluding to a scoffing ballad which was made on the admission of the late reverend and worthy Mr. Lindsay to the Laigh Kirk.
15
Genesis, ix. 22.
16
Numbers, xxv. 8.
17
Exodus, iv. 25.
18
“New Light” is a cant phrase in the West of Scotland, for those religions opinions which Dr. Taylor of Norwich has defended.
19
Duan, a term of Ossian’s for the different divisions of a digressive poem. See his “Cath-Loda,” vol. ii. of Macpherson’s translation.
20
The Wallaces.
21
Sir William Wallace.
22
Adam Wallace, of Richardton, cousin to the immortal preserver of Scottish independence.
23
Wallace, Laird of Craigie, who was second in command under Douglas, Earl of Ormond, at the famous battle on the banks of Sark, fought anno 1448. That glorious victory was principally owing to the judicious conduct and intrepid valour of the gallant laird of Craigie, who died of his wounds after the action.
24
Coilus, king of the Picts, from whom the district of Kyle is said to take its name, lies buried, as tradition says, near the family seat of the Montgomeries of Coilsfield, where his burial-place is still shown.
25
Barskimming, the seat of the late Lord Justice-Clerk (Sir Thomas Miller of Glenlee, afterwards President of the Court of Session.)
26
Catrine,