Intertainment that can never be disagreeable to any Scors Man, who despises the Fopery of admiring nothing but what is either new or foreign, and is a Lover of his Country. Such the Royal Company of ARCHERS are, and such every good Man should strive to be.

The Spirit of Freedom that shines throw both the serious and comick Performances of our old Poets, appears of a Piece with that Love of Liberty that our antient Heroes contended for, and maintained Sword in Hand. From you then, My Lords and Gentlemen, who take Pleasure to represent our brave Ancestors, these POETS claim Regard and Patronage; they now make a Demand for that immortal Fame that tun

ed their Souls some Hundred Years ago,

which is in your Power, by countenancing to bestow. They do not address you with an indigent Face, and a thousand pityful Apologies, to bribe the good Will of the Criticks. No! 'tis long since they were superiour to the Spleen of these sour Gentlemen.

Every one who has Generosity, and is not byassed with a mistaken Prejudice, will allow, that good Sense, sharp Satyre, and witty Mirth, may be express'd with a true Spirit, altho' in antiquated Words and Phrases; When one bestows but a very small Pains to enter into the Authors Manner, then 'tis not to be doubted but the ROYAL COMPANY will receive and approve of these valuable Remains, and have a due Regard to the Memory of these merito

PREFACE.

I

HAVE observed that Readers of the best and most exquisite Discernment frequently complain of our modern Writings, as filled with affected Delicacies and studied Refinements, which they would gladly exchange for that natural Strength of Thought and Simplicity of Stile our Forefathers practised: To such, I hope, the following Collection of Poems will not be displeasing.

When these good old Bards wrote, we had not yet made Use of imported Trimming upon our Cloaths, nor of foreign Embroidery in our Writings. Their Poetry is the Product of their own Country, not pilfered and spoiled in the Transpor tation from abroad: Their Images are native, and their Landskips domestick; copied from those Fields and Meadows we every Day behold.

The Morning rises (in the Poets Description) as she does in the Scottish Horizon. We are not carried to Greece or Italy for a Shade, a Stream or a Breeze. The Groves rise in our own Valleys; the Rivers flow from our own Fountains, and the Winds blow upon our own Hills. I find not Fault with those Things, as they are in Greece or Italy: But with a Northern Poet for fetching his Materials from these Places, in a Poem, of which his own Country is the Scene; as our Hymners to the Spring and Makers of Pastorals frequently do.

This Miscellany will likewise recommend itself by the Diversity of Subjects and Humour it contains. The grave Description and the wanton Story, the Moral Saying and the Mirthful Jest, will illustrate and alternately relieve each other.

The Reader whose Temper is spleen'd with the Vices and Follies now in Fashion, may gratifie his Humour with the Satyres he will here find upon the Follies and Vices that were uppermost two or three Hundred Years ago. The Man, whose In