Classic Poem

'Tis in Edinburgh city
I would rejoice to be—
a bountiful and spacious place
that pleased in all respects:
garrison and battery
and ramparts all compact;
great buildings and a castle
where oft the camp has stayed.

Oft a royal camp was there,
and gorgeous were the officers;
a numerous troop of snorting horse
faithfully mounted guard;
every man was so expert
in all the best manoeuvres,
those lads who had good training
to deploy in battle order.

Many noble beaux are there,
urbane and elegant,
having powder on their wigs
right up to their crowns;
auburn, plaited tresses
twisted into curls;
and like silk is the bushy top,
when it is smoothed by comb.

Many patrician ladies
go up and down the street,
all wearing gowns of silk
that brush against the ground;
stays are worn by the damsels,
compressing them above,
with beauty spots on pretty faces,
to increase their coquetry.

Each one, as became her,
is popular with all;
she is sprightly, gay, beribboned,
trim, soft-white, smart and kind;
the maidens dress in costumes
robing them to the floor,
and pointed, tight, well-fitting shoe—
its heel seemed sharp to me.

When I went inside the Abbey,
'twas delightful to the eye
to gaze upon the portraits,
King Fergus coming first;
now that they have passed from us,
Scotland lacks the crown;
'tis this has put the Roughbounds
in these times out of court.

There are lamps, made of glass,
and a candle in every place,
to intensify their brilliance
and show them off to view;
'tis no less cause for happiness
to hear the chiming bells,
for they are sweeter than the May cuckoo,
with their glad, high-sounding surge.

The coaches go with rattle
at a trot and at the gallop;
at a trot and at the gallop;
horses of firm and easy step
would not be slow of pace;
those mettled, lively racers
of highest, pointed heads,
had not the heath for pasturage
nor the hill lands of the bens.

'Tis in the Parliament House close
yonder I see the horse,
standing, as it has done of yore,
on the open, stone-paved street;
they equipped it with reins and saddle,
and 'tis the king who is in the seat,
that had the title to this realm,
though they forsook his son.

The noble Parliament House
is raised high in esteem
by sagacious gentlemen
who never judged but justly;
here is judgment on earth
that will last and not depart hence,
so that those who deserve it are hanged,
while the guiltless are discharged.

And there I saw a hospital
used by doctors for good work,
that would cure every ailment
affecting flesh or frame;
for any man in ill-health
or in need of the physician,
this was the place devoted to the task
of saving him from death.

Edinburgh is beautiful
in many diverse ways;
there is no city in this realm
but would yield it precedence.
How many men I could tell of there,
who would give others fee,
while gentlemen slake their thirst
by drinking Spanish wine.

Though great the space that intervenes
between Glasgow and Perth,
certain I am, although I saw
each building through it all,
that it has none so charming
as the Abbey and the Bank,
large and splendid houses
wherein the king should stay.