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Not Mommerancy, not the great Naſſau,
Could Anceſtors like theſe, directly draw.
Douglaſs with Native Dignitys adorn'd,
Ancient beyond Record,
Records they ſcorn'd.
The World's the general [1] Record of their Houſe,
When Hiſtories are ſilent and abſtruſe.
The Fund of Families is in their Blood,
And the [2] Fam'd Scoti on their Shoulders ſtood,
A Race of Princes from their fruitful Stem,
Has been a living Hiſtory to them.
Their Fame that's paſt, foretold their Fame to come,
- ↑ Record. Here I make no question but to be animadverted upon for my different way of expressing the word Record, and changing the Quantity, making the Vowel long in the last Syllable of the first, and short in the last Syllable of the second. But for this, I have so good an Authority, that all Men will allow it sufficient to justifie me; being from such a Master of the Language as Buchannan himself, as follows. Dies tenētbras & tenebrae Dient, Buch. Ps. 19. ver. 2. l. 1. Which being the Verse call'd Dactilicus alchaicus, the second Foot is always Jambus, and the third and fourth Dactyli.
- ↑ Fam'd Scoti. The Author of the History of the House of Douglass, tells us, That William Douglass, Grandchild to Sholto Douglass, was the Father of the Noble Family of the Scoti at Placenza in Italy. Fol. 5. And some say, That by a Marriage between a Branch of the said Family of Scoti, and some of the Ancient Line of the House of Mar in Scotland, was the O|riginal of the Family of Marr-e-Scoti, a great and flourishing Family in Italy to this day.
