Prophecies of Thomas Rymer (3)/Chapter 3
Several Other
OLD PROPHECIES
OF Thomas Rymer,
Which are either not yet fulfilled, or their
signification not properly discovered.
THOMAS the Rymer, coming from the Skaitraw, near Dunbar, upon June 1210, looked round him, and said,
Thou Scotland shall lament; for thy kyth and kin will be taken from thee, and thy nobles banished to foreign lands.
On the sides of the Forth, wonders shall be seen and heard.
The brave coast of Fife shall mourn; and three Lothians shall have a deadly turn. Largie-law shall want a master; the Tod shall come and spoil Crile; St. Andrews, the ancient, shall run to ruin; and thou Cupar, by rights shall grow old and diminish.
Falkland shall loss, and her sanctuary shall not be regarded, and be of no use.
Kennoway shall be ruined with religious superstition, and her Clettyden a nest of thieves, and shall lose its inhabitants.
Dysart shall be smoke, and be underminded, and the Wymse shall decay.
Kirkcaldy shall be enlarged, but not by riches: Their Abbot-Hall shall be ruined and their salt and coal shall fail.
Kinghorn, thy royal Master shall lose his life near thy border. But,
Thy horse and ferry shall never fail,
As sure as this is Rymer's tale.
Burntisland, thy port shall flourish; but thy religious disputes shall do thee much hurt. There shall rise a Hoboy, which shall turn thee to music: but take care of that intrustment, for it will vex thee for a season; but its rotten heart will moulder off.
Thou Inverkeithing by the brae,
Ancient for thy liberty.
But thou shalt forfeit thy rights, and shall be perplexed for a season: Trade and commerce in thee shall fail. But if thou repent, there is yet a sure friend, which will relieve thee.
Dunfermline, thou town of old antiquity who hast kings lying in thy urns; look, and behold the days will come, when strangers will fear to see and behold thy ruinous situation. Religious discords will rent thee; by there will be trasect still within thy borders.
Look upward, and behold Culross, who in King David's time got their Charter.
Go straight foreward, and see Alloa, which kyth and kin left them; and they shall grovel under oppressors, and never shall be among the number of thy royal brothers.
Thou Stirling, the centre of all mischief in Scotland, thy king will brand thee: But the birth and baptism of a royal Son, whose name shall be Henry, this stands for thy glory.
The gloomy day, the year fifteen,
At Stirling-bridge it shall be seen
That troops chase hard on others heels,
When true Scots sons lost all their fiels.
At Falkirk and Bannockburn, on these fields shall be seen thousands of English souls. The proud English shall strive to conquer, but all in vain: it will be until an agreement shall be made, which will be little profit to Scotland, and make broils at home and abroad.
And thou Linlithgow, a Burgh of once renowned fame, shall be brought low by bribery and corruption: Thy universal Measure and Standard for Scotland, shall be in no esteem: but thy Wells of Water will still remain, and be much admired by strangers.
Likewise thou Barrowstounnesss, thy trade shall revive for a time; but Glasgow, thy support, will fail thee. There shall be a stream of water, on which thy Barks shall sail to the Clyde, will much damage thee.
O Edinburgh! once the glory of the Forth, thy Castle shall be inhabited often by strangers, and the country round will dread thy judges. Thy Courts shall be called in question by those who once made their nation tremble.
Thou Dalkeith and Leith, famous, the one for a Cromwell, and the other for a Monk, thy Forts shall be brought low and desolate. Leith shall be brought to servitude, Dalkeith to poverty; only they shall reserve a day in the week, to spend what they gain the rest of the days. Pharisees shall build altars in thee and broils will continue for a time in thee. But there shall rise a noble Buck, whose family will be had in great esteem; their kyth and kin shall be much honoured.
Musselburgh of old hath been recorded, and to its honour it may be said,
Musselburgh it was a Burgh,
when Edinburgh was none:
And Musselburgh will be a Burgh,
when Edinburgh is done.
As for Preston, thy fields shall run with blood; and the day will come, when thy inhabitants shall dig for their living in the bowels of the earth: And likewise thou shalt make clay thy principal trade; and thy salt shall be well taxed, thy store-houses keys shall be kept out of thy possession.
Port-Seton by the sea,
Heirless shall thy lands be,
And Winton-house shall not be free
Of ruins, caus'd by perjury.
That noble family yet will bloom,
When tyranny has got its doom.
North-Berwick and its ancient Law,
A land mark at the sea I saw:
I heard of thee, and do declare,
Thou's be planted with an Orkney heir.
There shall a judge live near to thee,
Who shall not justice do to thee:
There will be swirls in thy Law,
Thy judge will take thy corn and straw;
My meaning will be understood
When double taxes will stand good.
Upon those lands oppressive men
Shall turn all mad, and we will gain.
Thus far I knew, and sure it's leal;
So fit your minds on Rymer's tale.
But that the curious may be more fully informed concerning the forsaid predictions, with repect to their being exactly fulfilled, they are referred to the Scottish Histories,