KILTS v. BREEKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2103, 14 June 1894, Page 39

KILTS v. BREEKS.

(Inscribed to A. Roes, Esq., President Caledonian Society, Kelso.) Time—" Bonnets o' blue." Yes, surely, we'll cherish the kilt and the feather! While breath lasts, my lads, and still blooms the heather. Our language and customs still to us ever dear, And to all our traditions still true, never fear ! Chorus. So ho ro ! for the pibroch, the kilt, and the feather ; So ho ro! for the land of the bracken and heather ; . ♦ So ho ro 1 for the lads and the lasses so true, Who aye love the tartan and speak Gaelic too 1 So ho ro 1 Oh 1 how our hearts beat with rapture still at the strain Of the pibroch, dear to Gael on the mountain or plain; . At the sight of the tartan fond memories awake, And, transported in fancy, we view Ben and Lake. So ho ro ! &c. 'Twas the garb so oft worn 'midst the carnage of battle, 'Twas the strain fired brave hearts facing musketry's rattle ; On the bleak heights of Alma or scorching Cawnpore, The garb and the pibroch were aye to the fore 1 So ho ro 1 <fee. While the stag rears so proudly his head to tfie sky, And the eagle encircles her brood from on high, So long shall the tartan continue to wave And aye be the dress of the true and the brave. So ho ro ! &c. Though oceans divide from our loved hilla of the heather, Enshrined in our hearts is kilt, bonnet, and faether. On the shores of New Zealand the pibroch shall psal, - And ourwatchword for ever be, " Re-guailan-a-1 cheile 1 " , So ho ro 1 &c. — D. M'Pherson. Dunedin, June 1891.