With tardy moving pace, begins to creep;
Towards their solemn gloom wrap’d mansions fly
The ebon rooks, spread o’er the mountain steep.
Where this bald barren spot of earth expands,
Deck’d with no shade of plant, or flow’rets smile,
Rear’d by some skill-conducted artist’s hands,
A gallows frowns a terror striking pile!
* * * * *
By Hugh Downman, A.B. Printed in Edinburgh, 1768.