Auchtertool. Alexander Wilson (1766-1813). Auchtertool. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. 1876-79. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes. Scotland: Vols. VI-VIII

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.

Auchtertool

Alexander Wilson (1766–1813)


FROM the village of Leslie, with a heart full of glee,
And my pack on my shoulders, I rambled out free,
Resolved that same evening, as Luna was full,
To lodge, ten miles distant, in old Auchtertool.

Through many a lone cottage and farm-house I steered,	5
Took their money, and off with my budget I sheered;
The road I explored out, without form or rule,
Still asking the nearest to old Auchtertool.

At length I arrived at the edge of the town,
As Phœbus, behind a high mountain, went down;	10
The clouds gathered dreary, and weather blew foul,
And I hugged myself safe now in old Auchtertool.

An inn I inquired out, a lodging desired,
But the landlady’s pertness seemed instantly fired;
For she saucy replied, as she sat carding wool,	15
“I ne’er kept sic lodgers in auld Auchtertool.”

With scorn I soon left her to live on her pride;
But, asking, was told there was none else beside,
Except an old weaver, who now kept a school,
And these were the whole that were in Auchtertool.	20

To his mansion I scampered, and rapped at the door;
He oped, but as soon as I dared to implore,
He shut it like thunder, and uttered a howl
That rung through each corner of old Auchtertool.

Deprived of all shelter, through darkness I trode,	25
Till I came to a ruined old house by the road,
Here the night I will spend, and, inspired by the owl,
My wrath I ’ll vent forth upon old Auchtertool.