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20 The sun most like a speedy post

With ardent course ascends;
The beauty of our heavenly host
Up to our zenith tends.

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21 The breathless flocks draw to the shade
And freshure1 of their fauld;2

The startling nolt, as they were mad,
Run to the rivers cauld.

22 The herds beneath some leafy trees,
Amidst the flowers they lie;

The stable ships upon the seas
Tend up their sails to dry.

23 The hart, the hind, the fallow-deer,
Are tapish'd at their rest;

The fowls and birds that made thee beare,*
Prepare their pretty nest.

24 The rayons dure descending down,
All kindle in a gleid;6

In city, nor in burrough town,
May none set forth their head.

25 Back from the blue pavemented whun,7
And from ilk plaster wall,

The hot reflexing of the sun.
Inflames the air and all.

26 The labourers that timely rose,

All weary, faint, and weak,

1 'Freshure:' freshness.- 'Fauld:' fold.-3 'Tapish'd:' stretched as on a carpet.Beare:' sound, music.-5 Rayons dure:' hard or keen rays.—6 Gleid:' fire. Whun:' whinstone.

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For heat down to their houses goes,
Noon-meat and sleep to take.

27 The caller1 wine in cave is sought,
Men's brothing2 breasts to cool;
The water cold and clear is brought,
And sallads steeped in ule.3

28 With gilded eyes and open wings,
The cock his courage shows;

With claps of joy his breast he dings,4
And twenty times he crows.

29 The dove with whistling wings so blue,
The winds can fast collect,

Her purple pens turn many a hue
Against the sun direct.

30 Now noon is gone-gone is mid-day,
The heat does slake at last,
The sun descends down west away,
For three o'clock is past.

31 The rayons of the sun we see
Diminish in their strength,

The shade of every tower and tree
Extended is in length.

32 Great is the calm, for everywhere
The wind is setting down,

The reek throws up right in the air,
From every tower and town.

Caller:' cool.

'Reek:' smoke.

Brothing:' burning.- Ule:' oil. Dings:' beats.--

33 The mavis and the philomeen,1

The starling whistles loud,

The cushats on the branches green,
Full quietly they crood.3

34 The gloamin comes, the day is spent,
The sun goes out of sight,
And painted is the occident
With purple sanguine bright.

35 The scarlet nor the golden thread,
Who would their beauty try,
Are nothing like the colour red
And beauty of the sky.

36 What pleasure then to walk and see,
Endlong a river clear,

The perfect form of every tree
Within the deep appear.

37 The salmon out of cruives and creels,7
Uphauled into scouts;&

The bells and circles on the weills,9
Through leaping of the trouts.

38 O sure it were a seemly thing,
While all is still and calm,

The praise of God to play and sing
With trumpet and with shalm.

1 The mavis and the philomeen:' thrush and nightingale.- 'Cushats:* wood-pigeons.-3 3 Crood:' coo.-4 Gloamin:' evening.

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Endlong:' along.

6Cruives:' cages for catching fish.-7 Creels:' baskets-8 Scouts:' small boats or yawls. Weills:' eddies.

39 Through all the land great is the gild1
Of rustic folks that cry;

Of bleating sheep, from they be fill'd,
Of calves and rowting kye.

40 All labourers draw home at even,
And can to others say,

Thanks to the gracious God of heaven,
Who sent this summer day.

OTHER SCOTTISH POETS.

ABOUT the same time with Hume flourished two or three poets in Scotland of considerable merit, such as Alexander Scott, author of satires and amatory poems, and called sometimes the Scottish Anacreon;' Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington, father of the famous Secretary Lethington, who, in his advanced years, composed and dictated to his daughter a few moral and conversational pieces, and who collected, besides, into a MS. which bears his name, the productions of some of his contemporaries; and Alexander Montgomery, author of an allegorical poem, entitled 'The Cherry and the Slae.'

The allegory is not well managed, but some of the natural descriptions are sweet and striking. Take the two following stanzas as a specimen

'The cushat croods, the corbie cries,
The cuckoo conks, the prattling pies
To geck there they begin ;

The jargon of the jangling jays,
The cracking craws and keckling kays,
They deav'd me with their din;
The painted pawn, with Argus eyes,
Can on his May-cock call,

The turtle wails, on wither'd trees,
And Echo answers all.

1 'Gild:' throng.

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Repeating, with greeting,
How fair Narcissus fell,
By lying, and spying

His shadow in the well.

'The air was sober, saft, and sweet,
Nae misty vapours, wind, nor weet,
But quiet, calm, and clear;
To foster Flora's fragrant flowers,
Whereon Apollo's paramours
Had trinkled mony a tear;
The which, like silver shakers, shined,
Embroidering Beauty's bed,
Wherewith their heavy heads declined,
In Maye's colours clad ;

Some knopping, some dropping

Of balmy liquor sweet,

Excelling and smelling

Through Phoebus' wholesome heat.'

The Cherry and the Slae' was familiar to Burns, who often, our readers will observe, copied its form of verse.

SAMUEL DANIEL.

THIS ingenious person was born in 1562, near Taunton, in Somersetshire. His father was a music-master. He was patronised by the noble family of Pembroke, who probably also maintained him at college. He went to Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1579; and after studying there, chiefly history and poetry, for seven years, he left without a degree. When twentythree years of age, he translated Paulus Jovius' 'Discourse of Rare Inventions.' He became tutor to Lady Anne Clifford, the elegant and accomplished daughter of the Earl of Cumberland. She, at his death, raised a monument to his memory, and recorded on it, with pride, that she had been his pupil. After Spenser died, Daniel became a voluntary laureat' to the Court, producing masques and pageants, but was soon supplanted by 'rare Ben Jonson.' In 1603 he was appointed Master of the Queen's Revels and Inspector of the Plays to be enacted by

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