Unknown poem, by John Struthers

This poem was written 186 years ago in 1830, by John Struthers. John had quite the flair for poetry, especially when it came to describing our local nature. Beautiful flowers are described in our area, and those primroses and violet blooms can still be seen today.

Where early violet blooms unseen,
Beneath the breathing eglantine.
And in its sweetness simply great,
Like virtue plac’d in low estate.

The primrose drinks the rath May dew,
A down the vale of fair Millheugh,
Where learning, liberty and rest,
The age of patriot Millar blest,
And where, enjoying, free from care,
The rich man’s love, the poor man’s prayer,
In his fair daughters all may see,
What female goodness ought to be.

Or where, as if by fairy hands,
Set down, Crossbasket lovely stands,
While fragrant, June prolific showers,
Around her wilderness of flowers,
And every rock, and every tree,
Is one wild hum of melody.

Or, near my earliest, dearest home,
Where still the loveliest wild flowers bloom,
And still the softest dews are shed,
And still the liveliest green is spread,
To mark of honour’d worth the state,
The noble Maxwell’s princely seat,
The glens, and groves of Calderwood,
While cuckoos cry, and cushets crood.

And when the burning July beam
Has almost drunk thy tinkling stream,
How grateful to the wanderer then,
Tor ranee, the depth of thy dark glen,
Where, from the heather-crested rocks,
Spread far and wide the knarled oaks.