PANORAMA FROM THE CALTON-HILL. 117 



For a distinct view of the architectural magnificence of the Calton-hill, which 

 has been styled the Capitoline — or, according to others, the AcroxDoIis — of 

 the North, there is, perhaps, no better station than the centre of the North 



And lo, where the turbulent hordes of the Dane — 

 Like a dark cloud of locusts invading the plain, 

 Lay fiercely carousing, till victory saw 

 Their glory laid waste on the green Berwick-law ;* 

 Their warriors of Odin — their worship oPThor — 

 The victims, and scoff, of the Scottish claymore . . . 



A range of blue hills intercepting the eye,t 

 Now swell in bold outline — now melt in the sky, 

 And sprinkled with hamlet, tower, fortress, and fane, 

 In sylvan declivities sweep to the main — 

 There, landscapes that teem with the treasures of life — 

 Here, fields where the harvests were gathered in strife! 

 And, rich with the tales and traditions of yore — 

 Embellish and brighten Bodotria's shore. 



Herds — flocks on each hill, and ripe harvests below ; 

 Each hamlet a port, where the mariner's prow 

 Returns with its traffic, and, freighted again. 

 Resumes the wild track of its perils — the main. 



With fleets on its bosom, and towns on its brim — 

 And islands that seem on its surface to' swim. 

 That main is instinctive with life. — Where the sail 

 With joyful expansion embraces the gale. 

 Begirt by the billow, and sprinkled with foam, 

 Lo, the shattered remains of monastic Incbcolm ! 



But oft has the plunderer rifled its form. 



And long has it weathered the shock of the storm, 



Since, wrecked by the tempest and pale in despair," 



A monarch found shelter and loyalty there, — 



When its barefooted hermit knelt down on the strand. 



And proffered his cell to the king of the land : 



In token of succour, thus timeously given, 

 Yon temple was raised to religion and heaven ; 

 Strength — sanctity — beauty — distinguished the pile, 

 And piety's votaries crowded the isle. 

 There penitence, shunning iniquitous strife, 

 Resolved on the fruits of a holier life : 

 And they who had sailed on the tide of the world 

 With the standard of pleasure flung free and unfurled, 



• See vol. i. p. 59. 



+ The whole line of coast from Portobello and Musselburgh to North Berwick-law, forming the southern 

 boundary to the numerous smaller bays and inlets on this part of the German Ocean. In the extreme 

 distance, Gosford House forms a striking object. — See our notice of East Lothian. 



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