BETA

Maga at No. 45.

Forty-five, Forty-five, 1
For a blessing belyve, 2
I have set up my rest under you, 3
For aye, through this land, 4
With blood and with brand, 5
Thy name was engraven till now, 6
Forty-five,7
Thy name was engraven till now.8
The first time, I trow, 9
That I e’er heard of you, 10
It was long ere a Maga was born, 11
When the Border all rang12
With war’s terrible clang, 13
And the bugle at evening and morn, 14
Forty-five, &c.15
And though then Ancrum Moor16
Ran red with the gore17
Of the Southron’s inveterate host ; 18
Yet war, waste, and death, 19
In vengeance and wrath, 20
Went on to our land’s bitter cost, 21
Forty-five, &c.22
The next time I heard23
Of thy baleful award24
To my country—How grievous the while, 25
When thousands of Scots26
Cut each other’s throats, 27
Under Baillie, Montrose, and Argyle, 28
Forty-five, &c.29
Then in feud and in flame, 30
With Prince Charles you came, 31
Who like lightning the land overran ; 32
How fraught with despair, 33
To the brave and the fair, 34
To the Prince, each bold Chief, and his clan, 35
Forty-five, &c.36
Brave Prince, o’er thy urn, 37
Royal Maga must mourn, 38
As the last of her old Stuart name ;39
And to keep it alive, 40
Under the Forty-five, 41
My country’s free standard shall flame, 42
Royal race, &c.43
I have heard of thy number, 44
Mid bother and cumber, 45
On the hill of old Ludgate confest ; 46
But our rights to revive47
Under this Forty-five, 48
Undaunted I set up my rest, 49
Forty-five, &c.50
And each statesman shall know it, 51
Each critic and poet, 52
And guess from the days that are gone, 53
That at Forty-five, 54
While Maga’s alive, 55
Respect of their persons is none, 56
Forty-five, &c,57
If in honour they fail, 58
She will ring such a peal59
Of reproach, that the world shall wonder, 60
And tremble and shrive, 61
When New Forty-five62
Breaks out in her volleys of thunder, 63
Kit North, &c.64
For she’s firm as the Bass, 65
And her brow is of brass, 66
And her rapier of flame is the pen ; 67
Yet more influence has she68
O’er the land and the sea, 69
Than an hundred and ten thousand men, 70
Forty-five, 71
Than an hundred and ten thousand men.72
Then hail my new dwelling, 73
All others excelling, 74
Thou throne of the bold and the free : 75
And here I proclaim, 76
In Old Christopher’s name, 77
That my friends shall be welcome in thee, 78
Forty-five ; 79
All my friends shall be welcome in thee. 80
[Enthusiastic chuckling and crowing.