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The following song, by Sir Walter Scott, on the 

 Esk, is worthy of transcription : 



" Sweet are the paths Oh, passing sweet ! 



By Esk's fair streams that run, 

 O'er airy steep, through copsewoods deep, 



Impervious to the sun. 



" There the rapt poet's step may rove, 



And yield the muse the day ; 

 There beauty, led by timid love, 



May shun the tell-tale ray. 



" From that fair dome where suit is paid, 



By blast of bugle free, 

 To Auchindinny's hazel glade, 



And haunted Woodhouselee. 



" Who knows not Melville's beechy grove, 



And Koslin's rocky glen, 

 Dalkeith, which all the virtues love, 



And classic Hawthornden." 



Some of the localities of the Esk are associated 

 with the names of poets of renown. We have Haiv- 

 thornden rising precipitously from one of its deep 

 glens, anciently the residence of the celebrated poet, 

 William Drummond. It is said that the present 

 house was built by him. In 1619, Ben Jonson paid 

 him a visit ; and the retailers of gossip and anecdote 

 relate that Drummond, when he saw the English 

 poet approaching his residence, ran out to meet him, 

 saying 



" "Welcome, welcome, Royal Ben ;" 

 to which Jonson promptly responded, 



" Thank ye, thank ye, Hawthornden." 



