Pausing while his pinions quiver, Stretched to quit our land forever! Each kind influence reign above thee! Warmer heart 'twixt this and Staffa Beats not than in heart of Staffa !

Pharos Loquitur.

[1814.]

FAR in the bosom of the deep,

O'er these wild shelves my watch I keep;
A ruddy gem of changeful light,
Bound on the dusky brow of night,
The seaman bids my lustre hail,
And scorns to strike his timorous sail.

Letters in Verse.

ON THE VOYAGE WITH THE COMMISSIONERS OF NORTHERN LIGHTS.

To His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch.

LIGHTHOUSE Yacht in the SOUND OF LERWICK,
ZETLAND, 8th August, 1814.

HEALTH to the chieftain from his clansman true!

From her true minstrel, health to fair Buccleuch !

Health from the isles where dewy Morning

weaves

Her chaplet with the tints that Twilight leaves;

Where late the sun scarce vanished from the sight,

And his bright pathway graced the shortlived night,

Though darker now as autumn's shades extend

The north winds whistle and the mists ascend!

Health from the land where eddying whirlwinds toss

The storm-rocked cradle of the Cape of Noss;

On outstretched cords the giddy engine slides,

His own strong arm the bold adventurer guides,

And he that lists such desperate feat to try May, like the sea-mew, skim 'twixt surf and sky,

And feel the mid-air gales around him blow,

And see the billows rage five hundred feet below.

Here, by each stormy peak and desert shore,

The hardy islesman tugs the daring oar, Practised alike his venturous course to keep

Through the white breakers or the pathless deep,

By ceaseless peril and by toil to gain
A wretched pittance from the niggard main.
And when the worn-out drudge old ocean
leaves,

What comfort greets him and what hut receives?

Lady! the worst your presence ere has cheered

When want and sorrow fled as you appeared

Were to a Zetlander as the high dome
Of proud Drumlanrig to my humble home.
Here rise no groves and here no gardens
blow,

Here even the hardy heath scarce dares to grow;

But rocks on rocks, in mist and storm arrayed,

Stretch far to sea their giant colonnade, With many a cavern seamed, the dreary haunt

Of the dun seal and swarthy cormorant. Wild round their rifted brows, with frequent