"Nature herself doth Scotchmen beasts confess,
Making their country such a wilderness;
A land that brings in question and suspence
God's omnipresence; but that Charles came thence;
[20] But that Montrose and Crawford's loyal band
Aton'd their sin, and christen'd half their land.—
A land where one may pray with curst intent,
O may they never suffer banishment!
Had Cain been Scot, God would have chang'd his doom,
Not forc'd him wander, but confin'd him home.—
"Lord! what a goodly thing is want of shirts!
How a Scotch stomach and no meat converts!
They wanted food and rayment, so they took
Religion for their temptress and their cook.—
Hence then you proud impostors get you gone,
You Picts in gentry and devotion.
You scandal to the stock of verse, a race
Able to bring the gibbet in disgrace.—
"The Indian that heaven did forswear,
Because he heard some Spaniards were there,
Had he but known what Scots in Hell had been,
He would, Erasmus-like, have hung between."
It is probable that this bitterness against our brethren of North-Britain, chiefly sprang from Mr. Cleveland's resentment of the Scots Army delivering up the King to the Parliament.
Footnotes:
Dr. Barten Holyday,
Son of Thomas Holyday, a taylor, was born at All Saints parish, within the city of Oxford, about the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign; he was entered early into Christ Church, in the time of Dr, Ravis, his relation and patron, by [21] whom he was chosen student, and having taken his degrees of batchelor and master of arts, he became archdeacon of Oxfordshire. In 1615, he entered into holy orders[1], and was in a short time taken notice of as an eloquent or rather popular preacher, by which he had two benefices confered on him both in the diocese of Oxford.
In the year 1618 he went as chaplain to Sir Francis Stewart, when he accompanied to Spain the Count Gundamore, after he had continued several Years at our court as embassador, in which journey Holyday behaved in a facetious and pleasant manner, which ingratiated him in the favour of Gundamore[2].
Afterwards our author became chaplain to King Charles I. and succeeded Dr. Bridges in the archdeaconry of Oxon, before the year 1626. In 1642 he was by virtue of the letters of the said King, created, with several others, Dr. of divinity. When the rebellion broke out, he sheltered himself near Oxford; but when he saw the royal party decline so much that their cause was desperate, he began to tamper with the prevailing power; and upon Oliver Cromwell's being raised to the Protectorship, he so far coincided with the Usurper's interests, as to undergo the examination of the Friers, in order to be inducted into the rectory of Shilton in Berks, in the place of one Thomas Lawrence, ejected on account of his being non compos mentis. For which act he was much blamed and censured by his ancient friends the clergy, who adhered to the King, and who rather chose to live in poverty during the usurpation, than by a mean compliance with the times, betray the interest of the church, and the cause of their exiled sovereign.