Didst mark, how toil’d the busy train, From morn to eve, till Drury Lane Leap’d like a roebuck from the plain? Ropes rose and sunk, and rose again, And nimble workmen trod; To realise bold Wyatt’s plan Rush’d many a howling Irishman; Loud clatter’d many a porter-can, And many a ragamuffin clan With trowel and with hod. Drury revives! her rounded pate Is blue, is heavenly blue with slate; She “wings the midway air” elate, As magpie, crow, or chough; White paint her modish visage smears, Yellow and pointed are her ears, No pendant portico appears Dangling beneath, for Whitbread’s shears[33] Have cut the bauble off. Yes, she exalts her stately head; And, but that solid bulk outspread, Opposed you on your onward tread, And posts and pillars warranted That all was true that Wyatt said, You might have deem’d her walls so thick Were not composed of stone or brick, But all a phantom, all a trick, Of brain disturb’d and fancy sick, So high she soars, so vast, so quick! ――――:o:―――― BLUE BONNETS OVER THE BORDER. [Scott introduces the following song in Chapter XXV. of _The Monastery_, with the remark that it was sung to the ancient air of “_Blue Bonnets over the Border_.”] March, march, Ettrick and Teviotdale, Why the deil dinna ye march forward in order? March, march, Eskdale and Liddesdale, All the blue bonnets are bound for the border. Many a banner spread, Flutters above your head, Many a crest that is famous in story, Mount and make ready then, Sons of the mountain glen, Fight for the Queen and the old Scottish glory! Come from the hills where the hirsels are grazing, Come from the glen of the buck and the roe; Come from the crag where the beacon is blazing, Come with the buckler, the lance, and the bow. Trumpets are sounding, War steeds are bounding, Stand to your arms then, and march in good order, England shall many a day Tell of the bloody fray, When the Blue Bonnets came over the border! WALTER SCOTT. ―――― BLUE STOCKINGS OVER THE BORDER.