1034 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1806, 
The bigots of the iron time 
Had called bis harmless art a crime. 
A wandering Harper, scorned and poor, 
He begged his bread from door to door ; 
And tuned, to please a peasant’s ear, 
The harp, a king had loved to hear, 
He passed where Newark’s stately tower 
Looks out from Yarrow’s birchen bower : 
The Minstrel} gazed with wishful eye— 
No humbler resting-place was nigh. 
With hesitating step, at last, 
The embattled portal-arch he passed, 
Whose ponderous grate and massy bar 
Had oft rolled back the tide of war, 
But never closed the iron door 
Azgvinst the desolate and poor. 
The duchess* marked his weary pace, 
His timid mein, and reverend face, 
And bade her page the menials tell, 
That they should tend the old man well : 
For she had known adversity, 
Though born in such a high degree ; 
In pride of power, in beauty’s bloom, 
Had wept o’er Monmouth’s bloody tomb ! 
When kindness had his wants supplied, - 
And the old man was gratified, 
Began to rise his minstrel pride : 
And he began to talk anon, 
ee Of good earl Francis+, dead and gone, 
And of earl Walter}, rest him God ! 
A braver ne’er to battle rode : 
And how, full many a tale he knew, 
Of£ the old warriors of Buccleuch ; 
And, would the noble duchess deign 
To listen to an old man’s strain,’ 
Though stiff his hand, his voice though weak, 
He thought even yet, the sooth to speak, 
That, if she loved the harp to hear, 
He could make music to her ear, 
* Anne, duchess of Buccleuch and Monmouth, representative of the ancient 
lords of Buccleuch, and widow of the unfortunate James, duke of Monmouth, who 
was beheaded in 1685. F 
+ Francis Scott, earl of Buccleuch, father of the duchess. 
} Walter, earl of Buccleuch, grandfather of the duchess, and a celebrated war- 
rior. > 
3 \ The 
