He then alludes to the magnificent present abovementioned, and concludes in that happy vein of alliterative excellence, for which he is so justly admired—
With gorgeous gifts from gen’rous GRAHAM grac’d,
Great Glasgow grows the granary of taste.
Our readers will doubtless recollect, that this is not the first tribute of applause paid to the distinguished merit of the public-spirited young Nobleman in question. In the first edition of the poem, his character was drawn at length, the many services he has rendered his country were enumerated, and we have lately been assured by our worthy friend and correspondent, Mr. Malcolm M’Gregor, the ingenious author of the Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers, and other valuable poems, that the following spirited verses, recording the ever-memorable circumstance of his Lordship’s having procured for the inhabitants of the Northern extremity of our Island, the inestimable privilege of exempting their posteriors from those ignominious symbols of slavery, vulgarly denominated breeches, are actually universally repeated with enthusiasm, throughout every part of the highlands of Scotland—
Thee, GRAHAM! thee, the frozen Chieftains bless,
Who feel thy bounties through their fav’rite dress;
By thee they view their rescued country clad
In the bleak honours of their long-lost plaid;
Thy patriot zeal has bar’d their parts behind
To the keen whistlings of the wintry wind;
While Lairds the dirk, while lasses bag-pipes prize,
And oat-meal cake the want of bread supplies;
The scurvy skin, while scaly scabs enrich,
While contact gives, and brimstone cures the itch,
Each breeze that blows upon those brawny parts,
Shall wake thy lov’d remembrance in their hearts;
And while they freshen from the Northern blast,
So long thy honour, name, and praise shall last.
We need not call to the recollection of the classical reader,
Dum juga montis aper, sluvios dum piscis amabit,
Semper honos, nomenque tuum laudesque manebunt.
And the reader of taste will not hesitate to pronounce, that the copy has much improved upon, and very far surpassed the original. In these lines we also find the most striking instances of the beauties of alliteration; and however some fastidious critics have affected to undervalue this excellence, it is no small triumph to those of a contrary sentiment to find, that next to our own incomparable author, the most exalted genius of the present age, has not disdained to borrow the assistance of this ornament, in many passages of the beautiful dramatic treasure with which he has recently enriched the stage. Is it necessary for us to add, that it is the new tragedy of the Carmelite to which we allude?—A tragedy the beauties of which, we will venture confidently to assert, will be admired and felt, when those of Shakespeare, Dryden, Otway, Southerne, and Rowe, shall be no longer held in estimation. As examples of alliterative beauty, we shall select the following:—
The hand of heav’n hangs o’er me and my house,
To their untimely graves seven sons swept off.
Again—
So much for tears—tho’ twenty years they flow,
They wear no channels in a widow’s cheek.