Abbotsford (Scots Poem) Poem by Sheena Blackhall

Great Abbotsford wis Scott's Conundrum Castle
A happenstance o mortar, lime an stane
Biggt in the lea o eildritch Eildon Hills
On Clarty hole, founs o the Baron's hame

The Entrance
The grate belonged tae puir Archbishop Sharp
Murdered bi Covenanters. On the waa
Gaol yetts, scauld's bridle, gargoyles, Heilan dirks
Cast o the Bruce's skull in this fine haa

Cast up yer ee, ye'll see a wumman's skull
Ane o the hunners massacred in Eigg
Bi the MacLeods in vengeance for a slicht
Agin their chief. Nae mercy could they prig

Mebbe ye'll see Scott's blythsome grandother
Charlotte, gaun skippin by, his whuppity stoorie
Or myndins o his lued great granfaither
The contermaschious body kent as Beardie

A suit o armour, taen frae Boswell field
The coats o arms o Scott's ancestral kin
Napoleonic shield. Auld Tolbooth keys
Ferlies tae gar ye lowp oot o yer skin

Armoury
Suits o armour, corselets, helmets, caps
Sherp poniards, daggers, battle aixe and mace
Montrose's sword, Rob Roy's gun, dirk an sporran
And Claverhouse's pistol….warlock race

Here's Scott's ain weapons, pistol, blunderbuss
An Spanish flintlock, fired roon Abbotsford
(Scott helped raise Embro's volunteer dragoons
For fears o French invasion were abroad)

Drawin Room
The drawin room, haun-peintit Chinese paper
Wi lychee, aipple, citron, pumpkin, pear
Peonie. puggie, mappie an magnolia
An parrot, spurgie, bairnies o the air
Nae flirtin neuk inbye this library
A muckle peintin o a young Hussar
*Don Whiskerandos, facin ower the Tweed *Scott's son
The ghaist o a greymalkin in the haar

Sophia Scott wad play the harp an sing
The Wordsworths lued tae hear thon auncient lays
The portrait up abune the fireplace hings
Peintit bi Raeburn. on a huntin day

Study
The study hauds a gallery o buiks
An airt the maister caad ‘a speak-a-bit'
Pepper an Satt, his dugs aince lowped aboot
As Scott screived on, the chaumer, gaslicht lit

The wid that taps his screivin cabinet
Taen frae a galleon, in some derk oor
Wracked in the great Armada, set abune
*‘Afflavit Deus et dissapantur' *God blew and they were scattered

The brithers Grimm sent Scott their fairy tales
Here's chapbuiks, poetry, law buiks, history
Ballads frae minstrelsie o Scottish border
Witchery, chivalry, folklore, geography

Seeven incunables, rare as leopard's eggs
Papers on alchemy an poltergeists
Scatological satires, gallow's tales
Cartoons o trials an grim grave-robbin heists

Clausus tutu ero (Closed in I'll be safe)
(Plates on the buik spines) . The braw bosses vrocht
Are eftir Roslyn Chapel, Melrose Abbey
The fire place, Italian merble bocht
Yer ee micht licht on a great siller urn
Sent bi Lord Byron, fu o banes an stoor
Ryped frae an auncient sepulchre in Greece
A conversation piece tae wyle an oor

A daud o aitcake frae Culloden moor
Flora MacDonald keepsake, antrin things
Mary Queen o Scots ain crucifix
Sic relics gied lame Scott poetic wings

Jeanie Deans, Meg Dods, an Dumbledikes
Lord Glenallen, Edie Ochiltree
Madge Wildfire, Dandie Dinmont, Evan Dhu
Open his screivins, lat his stories flee

The Bride o Lammermoor, & Wandrin Willie
The Antiquary, Auld Mortality
The Lady o the Lake an Marmion
The Field o Waterloo an Waverley

The Lay o the Last Minstrel, Quentin Durward
The Talisman, Redgauntlet, & The Abbot
Heart of Midlothian, & Kenilworth
His harns devised, bumbazin theme an plot

They rigged a bed up for him doon the stair
Crippled bi strokes, frae traivellin, hame tae dee
He socht his pen, his fingers tint their grip
An seelent tears cam trinklin frae his ee

A quaet, warm, Autumn efterneen
Eneuch tae soothe this son o Border reivers
The soun o Tweed, his family roon his bed
Wae-gaun o ane o Scotia's finest screivers