THE DOG-RHYME. 197 



The rough burr-thistle, spreading wide 



Amang the bearded bear, 

 I tum'd the weeder-clips aside, 

 A nd spared the symbol dear : 

 No nation, no station, 



My envy e'er could raise ; 

 A Scot still, but blot still, 



I knew nae higher praise.' 

 (Epistle to the Guidwife of Wauchope House.) 



The true Carduus Scotticus is not fond of cultivated land, but is 

 a tremendous fellow when he gets hold of a waste outlying corner 

 to himself, sometimes attaining a heigbb- of four or five, or even six 

 feet, with a stem as thick as your wrist, and prickles no, spikes 

 is the word with spikes, then, as formidable as the bayonets of a 

 kilted regiment going into action. 



An anonymous lady correspondent in London sent us a manu- 

 script sheet of paper of the last century, containing a very old 

 dog-rhyme. " The paper has been in our family as long as I can 

 remember, and I have heard my grandfather repeat the lines often 

 before we left the Highlands fifty years ago. The Eonald Mac 

 Ronald Vic John mentioned in the rhyme was, I believe, one of 

 the Glencoe family, a celebrated hunter of deer in his day. He 

 was killed, as I have heard my grandfather relate, at the battle of 

 Philiphaugh. It was the fairy dog-rhyme in one of your recent 

 letters that brought to my mind that such a thing was in my 

 possession." Owing to the faded state of the writing, and a very 

 peculiar orthography, we had some difficulty in deciphering the 

 lines; but, modernising the spelling a little, the following we 

 believe to be an accurate transcript : 



An cti 'bh'aig Raonull-mac-Eaonuil-'ic-Iain, 

 if Bheiradh e sithionn a beinn : 



Ceann leathan eadar 'dha shuil, ach biorach 's bus dubh air gu shroin. 

 Uchd gearrain, seang-leasrach ; 's bha fhionnadh 

 Mar fhrioghan tuirc nimheil nan cbs. 



