BOTHWELL BANKS IS BONNY:
OR,
A Description of the New Mylne of Bothwell.
To the Tune of, Who can blame my woe.
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I Waking by the Christall streams
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of Clyd, at all good leasure:
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I[?]e Month which keeps the name
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[?] at brave second Cesar.
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Th[?]h bonny blooming Bothwel banks,
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v[?] (to paint truth on Paper)
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M[?]ose with all his martiall ranks,
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victoriously did vaper.
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And passing by, a path did lead
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by Adies Br[?] oft feitly.
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A [?]hich mov'd me to take heed,
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did sing and say most sweetly.
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Since Ceres with her golden arts,
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hath now begun to haunt thee:
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We shall consent, with joyfull hearts,
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we cannot live and want thee.
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Which voice it self could no soon bound,
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though solemnly it sounds it:
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Till at the very just rebound,
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the vocall Nymph resounds it.
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Which as upon Apollo's harp,
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doth strike upon the waters.
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And friddouns there both flat and sharp,
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then musing on such matters.
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I went straight-way to Meggats stone,
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and there without cessation
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I found of [?] these things each one,
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th[?]use[?] [?]d demonstration:
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[?] him [?] his daughter fair
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[?]pe did [?]
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In a [?]course with me just there,
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of Clyds delights the Center:
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And said they were to go about
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to clear the summe for certain,
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Of future things was to fall out,
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till now, which seem'd uncertain:
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Then told conform to whats before,
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they had a song contrived,
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The Nymphs that Bothwel Banks decore,
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to prompt the same subscribed.
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Unto the pleasant Birds in Banks,
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as Organs fit to vent it;
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With chearfull notes then gave they thanks,
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in token they assented.
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The subject a prime aedifice
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of stately stamp and modell:
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Was never seen such rare device,
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within the Banks of Bothwel.
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This house they straightway consecrate
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to Ceres her devotion,
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To hold heer choicest Courts thereat,
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against all contrare motion,
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To which the Dame gave her paroll,
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and said this sentence smyland,
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This shall be my chief Capitall,
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within all Britain's Iland.
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And there anone within a space,
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fra she had once possest it;
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Great pontifex unto that place,
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the noble Cors invested
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A Knave f[?] Vicar, to allot,
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she was [?]g a-granting.
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For w[?] New Mills want a jot
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of [?] never wanting.
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This suffragan must wear one form,
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still after his installing:
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A Cap and Cassick both conform,
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and proper to his Calling.
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His Orbs, his Sphears, his Font, his Fire,
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still arte by arte advancing:
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All run, turn, burn at his desire,
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his Sirp cloths white and glancing.
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Next Robin they creat off hand,
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their Herauld with commission,
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Who fairly took it off their hand,
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and that with low submission.
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Then Robin with his Crimson breast,
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on tops of Trees doth venter,
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For to proclaim a Christmas Feast
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to all the Birds in Winter.
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For lorgesse, sayes he, of that lot
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wherewith Dame Ceres serv'd us,
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That we have found an Antidote
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against our foes that starv'd us:
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For when these Tyrants, scant and cold,
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makes us to chirp and chirle,
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Wee'l find some Cordials at this Hold
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more priz'd by us then Pearl.
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This service done, the Birds resort
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to Robin, and can thank him:
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And singing to his praise a port,
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among the best they rank him.
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Yet for all that, the Fowles of rief
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has Robin smally thanked,
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For why, no kind of Flesh or Beef
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was to be at that Banquet.
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For lacking that all kind of Grain
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by them is much abhorred:
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And so they count his song in vain,
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but Robin car'd not for it.
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Yet woe to hear poor Progne flyte,
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with Tunes not very pleasant:
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He knew, the cause was of her spite
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that she could not be present.
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To swage fair Prognes wrath, just now
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when fruits are ripe in season:
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To make an In-fare they all vow,
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as best becomes, and reason.
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The which they hold with merry jest,
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and all to shew their breeding.
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The Lark was Minstrell to the Feast
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all time they were a-feeding.
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Bacchus and Ceres both, no doubt
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were there but for surprizes:
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To John Cors gave strait warrants out,
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just at the next assizes,
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Hunger to hang, that cut-throat lown,
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unworthy their tuition:
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And drought without delay to drown,
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by legall execution.
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Then each Bird descant some new spring,
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each other still out-stripping:
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In dance, the Partridge led the ring,
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that never tyres of tripping.
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The Merle, for more Ale he cryes,
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sayes Prea't, Brew-thick, who'l vent it:
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When Hostlers hears of that brave guise,
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we hope they shall resent it.
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This Feast to crown, the Cock so shrill,
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as Trumpeter elected:
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He blew a blast, which to the Mill
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made head, as he directed.
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With which there's few can be compar'd
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for double Grist, or Gradzean:
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Her Clap, with ease, may well be heard
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through East and West Moormadzean.
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Much folk fortell, that of her good
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they will be much the better:
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Both Fowl in Wood, and Fish in Flood,
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confesse to be her debter.
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To her all Bothwell Nymphs cry out,
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our blessing still do haunt thee:
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So long as thou may turn about,
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we cannot live and want thee.
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Then who can think this aedifice
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were not worth our description:
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Not wanting a rare Frontispice,
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fixt with a fair inscription.
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So surely situate on a Rock,
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that no deludge can daunt her:
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Still casting up a stately Dock
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against the braes of Blantyre.
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The double streams comes her upon,
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at first which runs compactly:
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Divided by a native stone,
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which cuts the same exactly.
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Such branching sure is not in vain,
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which (if I prove leill guesser)
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Serves both for him that flowres the Grain,
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and for the fine Cloth-dresser.
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All this cryes up the Crafts-man still,
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and that in all discourses:
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Who, both in Fire-works has fine skill,
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and als in Water-courses.
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There's none beholds his plots, needs strive
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in any thing to check him:
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Timantus, though he were alive
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would scorn for to correct him.
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Who's gifted with (as the case stands)
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to many's apprehension,
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For quick dispatch, Briarius hands,
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and for his rare invention:
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A Daedalus may well be call'd,
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who, which did cause great mournings
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At Athens; built in Crete that Hold,
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with many doubtsome turnings.
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As he knows how (no doubt) with ease
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like Daedalus, to manage
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His soaring flight, safe ov'r the seas,
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of skaith, or any damnage:
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For his Land-lord, we play, like things
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that envies heat eschewing:
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May safely, with well soddered wings,
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all perills passe of ruine.
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In sixteen hundreth fiftie eight,
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of our most blest Redeemer:
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The foresaid Month, the Muses taught
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this song; let no mis-deemer
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Sinisterly construct our mind,
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since that our prime intention
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To sport and peace are still inclin'd,
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abhorring all dissention.
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