POEMS
EPIGRAM
1804.
HA ! Doctor, your powders and potions give o'er,
Nor boast of your knowledge in healing;
For plainly we see all your skill is a fee,
Since you'll lame any man for a shilling.
With a long life, obtained I this freedom.
Persons drawn for the Militia were anxious to get quit of the service ; and on applying to Mr. Clelland, surgeon, Paisley, for a certificate of their unfitness, the cause he generally assigned was lameness,—the honorarium being one shilling ; and the Author here refers to his own lameness from his birth, which freed him from service.—Ed.