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Fays, Spunkies, Kelpies, a', they can explain

them,

And ev❜n the vera deils they brawly ken

them.)

Auld Brig appear'd of Ancient Pictish race,

The vera wrinkles Gothic in his face:

He feem'd as he wi' Time had warftl'd lang,
Yet teughly doure, he bade an unco bang.
New Brig was bufkit in a braw new coat,
That he, at Lox'on, frae ane Adams, got;
In's hand five taper ftaves as fmooth's a bead,
Wi' virls and whirlygigums at the head.

The Goth was ftalking round with anxious fearch,

Spying the time-worn flaws in ev'ry arch; It chanc'd his new-come neeber took his e'e, And e'en a vex'd and angry heart had he!

Wi' thievelefs fneer to fee his modifh mien,

He, down the water, gies him this guideen

AULD BRIG.

I DOUBT na, frien', ye'll think ye're nae fheep

thank,

Ance ye were ftreekit o'er frae

bank!

But gin ye be a brig as auld as me,

bank to

Tho' faith that day I doubt, ye'll never fee;

There'll be, if that date come, I'll wad a

boddle,

Some fewer whigmeleeries in

your noddle.

NEW BRIG.

AULD Vandal, ye but fhew your little menfe,

Juft much about it wi' your scanty fense;

Will

Will your poor, narrow foot-path of a street, Where twa wheel-barrows tremble when they

meet,

Your ruin'd, formlefs bulk o' ftane an' lime, Compare wi' bonie Brigs o' modern time?

There's men o' tafte wou'd tak the Ducat

stream*,

Tho' they should caft the vera fark and

fwim,

E'er they would grate their feelings wi' the

view

Of fic an ugly, Gothic hulk as you.

AULD BRIG.

CONCEITED gowk !puff'd up wi' windy pride; This mony a year I've ftood the flood an' tide;

And

*A noted ford, just above the Auld Brig.

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And tho' wi' crazy eild I'm fair forfairn,

I'll be a Brig, when ye're a fhapelefs cairn

better.

As yet ye little ken about the matter,
But twa-three winters will inform ye
When heavy, dark, continued a'. day rains
Wi' deepening deluges o'erflow the plains;
When from the hills where fprings the braw-
ling Coil,

Or ftately Lugar's moffy fountains boil,

Or where the Greenock winds his moorland

course,

Or haunted Garpal* draws his feeble fource,

Arouf'd

*The banks of Garpal Water is one of the few places in the West of Scotland, where those fancy scaring beings, known by

the name of Ghaists, still continue pertinaciously to inhabit.

Arous'd by bluft'ring winds and fpotting

thewes,

In mony a torrent down the fna-broo rowes; While crashing ice, borne on the roaring fpeat,

Sweeps dams, an' mills, an' brigs, a' to the

gate;

And from Glenbuck, down to the Ratton

Keyt,

Auld Ayr is just one lengthen'd tumbling

fea;

Then down ye'll hurl, deil nor ye never rife!

And dash the gumlie jaups up to the pouring

fkies.

The source of the river of Ayr.

A small landing place above the large key.

A leffon

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