Was never sa unkynd ane corce,1

As quhen I had auctoritie:

Of my freindis, I tuke na force,2
The quhilkis afore had done for me,
This proverb, it is of veritie,
Quhilk I hard red, intill ane letter,
Hiest in court, next the widdie,3
Without he gyde him all the better.

I tuke na mair compt of ane lord,
Nor I did of ane keitching knaif,*
Thocht everilk day I maid discord,
I was set up above the laif,"
The gentill hound was to me slaif,
And with the kingis awin fingeris fed,
The sillie rachis 6 wald I raif:7
Thus, for my evill deidis, was I dred :

Tharefor, Bawtie, luke best about,
Quhen thow art hiest with the king;
For than thou standis in greitest dout,
Be thow nocht gude of governing,
Put na pure tyke from his steiding,8
Nor yit na sillie rachis raif;

He sittis above that seis all thing,

And of ane knicht can make ane knaif.

2 Chase no poor dog from his dunghill, or place of repose.

3 Artifice.

This poem doubtless portrays the courtier, under an assumed likeness of one of his most opposite contrasts-the dog. It shows the estimation of James for the latter, and the close companion he made of him ere one as faithful in nature succeeded. It may be regarded as a kind of fable. Lyndsay's own motto, "I'Ayme," is more expressive of the dog.

William Robert Spencer.

Bowles, truly said, that the poetical world had seldom seen anything more pleasing and elegant on the dog than William Spencer's Ballad of 'Beth Gêlert.' "The story of this ballad

4 Curse.

3 Wilful in opinion; bewildered; lost as to the future.

5 Thought. 6 Caused. 7 Given to evil deeds. 8 Swing in a halter.

is traditionary in a village at the foot of Snowdon, where Llewelyn the Great had a house. The greyhound, named Gêlert, was given him by his father-in-law, King John, in the year 1205, and the place, to this day, is called Beth-Gêlert, or the Grave of Gêlert."