"THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD" AS PROPHET.
[To THE EDITOR 01 THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Will you allow me to call the attention of your readers to a remarkable prophecy occurring in the poem of " Kilmeny," written by James Hogg, "The Ettrick Shepherd," who died in 1835 P Kilmeny, a beautiful and pure maiden, is transported by occult powers to a mysterious region for seven years, and, among many visions, sees the following :-
" She saw before her fair unfurled One half of all the glowing world, Where oceans rolled, and rivers ran, To bound the aims of sinful man.
She saw a people, fierce and fell, Burst frae their bounds like fiends of hell; There lilies grew, and the eagle flew; And she harked on her ravening crew, Till the cities and towers were wrapped in a blaze And the thunder it roared o'er tho lands and the seas.
The widows they wailed and the rod blood ran, And she threatened an and to the race of man; She never lenod,* nor stood in awe Till caught by the lion's deadly paw. 0, then the eagle swinkedt for life, And brainzelled: up a mortal strife ; But flew she north, or flew she south, She mot wi' the gowlil o' the lion's mouth.
WI' a mooted§ wing and wasfa' maws,
The eagle sought her airy again;
But lang may she cower in her bloody nest, And tang, lang sleek her wounded breast, Before she soy another flight, To play with the norland lion's might."
It may be interesting at this moment to recall these lines, written so long ago.—I am, Sir, Sce., A. M. HOLDEN. $11arples Hall, Bolton.
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