CADYOW CASTLE. ADDRESSED TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LADY ANNE HAMILTON.' WHEN princely Hamilton's abode Ennobled Cadyow's Gothic towers, Yet still, of Cadyow's faded fame, For thou, from scenes of courtly pride, And mark the long-forgotten urn. The past returns - the present flies. ' [Eldest daughter of Archibald, 9th Duke of Hamilton —ED.) Where, with the rock's wood-cover'd side, And feudal banners flaunt between: Urge the shy steed, and slack the rein. Was fleeter than the mountain wind. Whose limbs a thousand years have worn, And drowns the hunter's pealing horn? The head of the family of Hamilton, at this period, was James, Earl of Arran, Duke of Chatelherault, in France, and first peer of the Scottish realm. In 1569, he was appointed by Queen Mary her lieutenant-general in Scotland, under the singular title of her adopted father. Mightiest of all the beasts of chase, The Mountain Bull comes thundering on. Fierce, on the hunter's quiver'd band, Aim'd well, the Chieftain's lance has flown; Sound, merry huntsmen! sound the pryse!1 "T is noon against the knotted oak The hunters rest the idle spear; Curls through the trees the slender smoke, 16 'Why fills not Bothwelhaugh his place, Why shares he not our hunter's fare?" 'Pryse-The note blown at the death of the game.-In Caledonia olim frequens erat sylvestris quidam bos, nunc vero rarior, qui, colore candidissimo, jubam densam et demissam instar leonis gestat, truculentus ac ferus ab humano genere abhorrens, ut quæcunque homines vel manibus contrectârint, vel halitu perflaverint, ab iis multos post dies omnino abstinuerunt. Ad hoc tanta audacia huic bovi indita erat, ut non solum irritatus equites furenter prosterneret, sed ne tantillum lacessitus omnes promiscue homines cornibus ar ungulis peteret; ac canum, qui apud nos ferocissimi sunt, impetus plane contemneret. Ejus carnes cartilaginosa, sed saporis suavissimi. Erat is olim per illam vastissimam Caledoniæ sylvam frequens, sed humana ingluvie jam assumptus tribus tantum locis est reliquus, Strivillingii, Cumbernaldiæ, e' Kincaruia.-LESLEUS, Scotiæ Descriptio, p. 13.-[See a note on Castle Dangerous, Waverley Novels, vol. xlvii.—ED.] Stern Claud replied,' with darkening face, No more the warrior wilt thou see. "Few suns have set since Woodhouselee' The war-worn soldier turn'd him home. "There, wan from her maternal throes, And peaceful nursed her new-born child. "O change accursed! past are those days; Ascends destruction's volumed flame. 'Lord Claude Hamilton, second son of the Duke of Chatelherault, and commendator of the Abbey of Paisley, acted a distinguished part during the troubles of Queen Mary's reign, and remained unalterably attached to the cause of that unfortunate princess. He led the van of her army at the fatal battle of Langside, and was one of the commanders at the Raid of Stirling, which had so nearly given complete success to the Queen's faction. He was ancestor of the present Marquis of Abercorn. 2 This barony, stretching along the banks of the Esk, near Auchendinny, belonged to Bothwellhaugh, in right of his wife. The ruins of the mansion, from whence she was expelled in the brutal manner which occasioned her death, are still to be seen in a hollow glen beside the river. Popular report tenants them with the restless ghost of the Lady Bothwellhaugh; whom, however, it confounds with Lady Anne Bothwell, whose Lament is so popular. This spectre is so tenacious of her rights, that, a part of the stones of the ancient edifice having been employed in building or repairing the present Woodhouselee, she has deemed it a part of her privilege to haunt that house also; and, even of very late years, has excited considerable disturbance and terror among the domestics. This is a more remarkable vindication of the rights of ghosts, as the present Woodhonselee, which gives his title to the Honourable Alexander Fraser Tytler, a senator of the College of Justice, is situated on the slope of the Pentland hills, distant at least four miles from her proper abode. She always appears in white, and with her child in her arms. "What sheeted phantom wanders wild, Where mountain Eske through woodland flows, Her arms enfold a shadowy child— Oh! is it she, the pallid rose? "The wilder'd traveller sees her glide, And hears her feeble voice with awe"Revenge,' she cries, on Murray's pride! And woe for injured Bothwellhaugh!'' He ceased—and cries of rage and grief And half unsheathed his Arran brand. But who, o'er bush, o'er stream and rock, Whose cheek is pale, whose eyeballs glare, From gory selle,2 and reeling steed, He dash'd his carbine on the ground. Sternly he spoke-" "Tis sweet to hear To drink a tyrant's dying groan. 'Birrel informs us, that Bothwellhaugh, being closely pursued, “after that spur and wand had failed him, he drew forth his dagger, and strocke his horse behind, whilk caused the horse to leape a very brode stanke, [i. e. ditch,] by whilk means he escapit, and gat away from all the rest of the horses."-BIRREL's Diary, p. 18. 2 Selle-Saddle. A word used by Spencer and other ancient authors |