verses on the destruction of the woods near drunrig

as on the banks o' wandering nith,

ae smiling simmer morn i stray'd,

and traced its bonie howes and haughs,

where linties sang andmmies y'd,

i sat me down upon a craig,

and drank my fill o' fancy's dream,

when from the eddying deep below,

up rose the genius of the stream.

dark, like the frowning rock, his brow,

and troubled, like his wintry wave,

and deep, as sughs the boding wind

amang his caves, the sigh he gave—

“and e ye here, my son,” he cried,

“to wander in my birken shade?

to muse some favourite scottish theme,

or sing some favourite scottish maid?

“there was a time, it's naeng syne,

ye might hae seen me in my pride,

when a' my banks sae bravely saw

their woody pictures in my tide;

when hanging beech and spreading elm

shaded my stream sae clear and cool:

and stately oaks their twisted arms

threw broad and dark across the pool;