Edina! Scotia’s darling seat!All hail thy palaces and tow’rs,Where once, beneath a Monarch’s feet,Sat Legislation’s sov’reign pow’rs:From marking wildly scatt’red flow’rs,As on the banks of Ayr I stray’d,And singing, lone, the lingering hours,I shelter in they honour’d shade.8
Here Wealth still swells the golden tide,As busy Trade his labours plies;There Architecture’s noble prideBids elegance and splendour rise:Here Justice, from her native skies,High wields her balance and her rod;There Learning, with his eagle eyes,Seeks Science in her coy abode.16
Thy sons, Edina, social, kind,With open arms the stranger hail;Their views enlarg’d, their liberal mind,Above the narrow, rural vale:Attentive still to Sorrow’s wail,Or modest Merit’s silent claim;And never may their sources fail!And never Envy blot their name!24
Thy daughters bright thy walks adorn,Gay as the gilded summer sky,Sweet as the dewy, milk-white thorn,Dear as the raptur’d thrill of joy!Fair Burnet strikes th’ adoring eye,Heaven’s beauties on my fancy shine;I see the Sire of Love on high,And own His work indeed divine!32
There, watching high the least alarms,Thy rough, rude fortress gleams afar;Like some bold veteran, grey in arms,And mark’d with many a seamy scar:The pond’rous wall and massy bar,Grim—rising o’er the rugged rock,Have oft withstood assailing war,And oft repell’d th’ invader’s shock.40
With awe-struck thought, and pitying tears,I view that noble, stately Dome,Where Scotia’s kings of other years,Fam’d heroes! had their royal home:Alas, how chang’d the times to come!Their royal name low in the dust!Their hapless race wild-wand’ring roam!Tho’ rigid Law cries out ’twas just!48
Wild beats my heart to trace your steps,Whose ancestors, in days of yore,Thro’ hostile ranks and ruin’d gapsOld Scotia’s bloody lion bore:Ev’n I who sing in rustic lore,Haply my sires have left their shed,And fac’d grim Danger’s loudest roar,Bold-following where your fathers led!56
Edina! Scotia’s darling seat!All hail thy palaces and tow’rs;Where once, beneath a Monarch’s feet,Sat Legislation’s sovereign pow’rs:From marking wildly-scatt’red flow’rs,As on the banks of Ayr I stray’d,And singing, lone, the ling’ring hours,I shelter in thy honour’d shade.64