210 'OLD Q' 



' " Alas ! " said I, " what ruefu' chance 



Has twined ye o' your stately trees 1 

 Has laid your rocky bosom bare ? 



Has stripp'd the deeding o' your braes ? 

 Was it the bitter eastern blast 



That scatters blight in early spring ? 

 Or was 't the wil'-fire scorch'd their boughs ? 



Or canker-worm wi' secret sting ? " 



' " Nae eastlan' blast," the sprite replied ; 



" It blew na here sae fierce and fell, 

 And on my dry and halesome banks 



Nae canker-worms get leave to dwell. 

 Man ! cruel man ! " the genius sigh'd, 



As through the clifis he sank him down, 

 " The worm that gnaw'd my bonnie trees — 



That reptile wears a ducal crown ! " ' 



This reference and others appear in Burns's poems on 

 his grace, whom the poet's admirers thought not worthy 

 of his verse. Burns was twitted once for not seeking 

 a subject more worthy of his muse; whereon Robbie 

 took out his pencil and dashed off the followmg stanzas 

 on the Duke of Queensberry, as being one who was 

 deemed particularly unworthy of the poet's notice : 



' How shall I sing Drumlanrig's Grace, 

 Discarded remnant of a race 



Once great in martial story ? 

 His forbears' virtues all contrasted. 

 The very name of Douglas blasted — 



His that inverted glory. 



