Air—" Holden's Dead March." 1805.
NOW let the procession move solemn and slow,
While the soft mournful music accords with our woe,
While friendship's warm tears round his ashes are shed,
And soul melting memory weeps for the dead.
Kind, good hearted fellow as ever was known !
So kind and so good every heart was his own ;
Now, alas ! low in death are his virtues all o'er ;
How painful the thought, we shall see him no more !
In camp or in quarters he still was the same,
Each countenance brightened wherever he came ;
When the wars of his country compelled him to roam,
He, cheerful, would say, all the world was his home.
And when the fierce conflict of armies began,
He fought like a lion, yet felt as a man ;
For when British brav'ry had vanquish'd the foe,
He'd weep o'er the dead by his valour laid low.
Ye time fretted mansions ! ye mould'ring piles !
Long echo his praise through your long vaulted aisles ;
If haply his shade nightly glide through your gloom,
O tell him our hearts lie with him in the tomb!
And say, though he's gone, long his worth shall remain,
Remember'd, belov'd, by the whole of the men.—
Whoe'er acts like him, with a warm feeling heart,
Friendship's tears drop applause at the close of his part.
Note by the Author.—
“They bore as heroes, but they felt as man.”
Pope's “Homer.”
“He thought as a sage, while he felt as a man.”
Beattie's “Hermit.”
Note by Ramsay.—“This song appeared in the only edition which was published in the Author's lifetime; but has hitherto been omitted in the posthumous editions, probably from oversight.”
It first appeared in 1805 in Millar's Paisley Repository, No. 1. See first Note to No. 16. It next appeared in Leslie's Glasgow Nightingale, page 19, in 1806. See first Note to No. 13. It also appeared in each of the editions of the Author's works published in 1822 and 1825.—Ed.
[Semple 101]