A canal deep, lang, and wide

Had some family visitors in Edinburgh today, and part of our day involved a brief walk along the end of our local canal - the Union Canal, which (via the Falkirk Wheel) now links the East and West Coast ...

... and, here's an early 19th century poem about the canal/s' construction:


A canal deep, lang, and wide

When first, by labour, Forth an’ Clyde
Were taught o’er Scotia’s hills to ride,
In a canal, deep, lang, an’ wide,
Naebody thocht
That winders, without win’ or tide,
Would e’er be wrocht.

To gar them trow that boats would sail
Thro’ fields o’ corn or beds o’ kail,
An’ turn o’er glens their rudder’s tail,
Like weathercocks,
Was doctrine that wad needed bail
Wi’ common folks.

They ca’d it nonsense, till at last
They saw boats travel east and wast,
Wi’ sails an’ streamers at their mast,—
Syne, without jeering,
They were convinced the blustering blast
Was worth the hearing.

For mony a year, wi’ little clatter,
An’ naething said about the matter,
The horses haul’d them through the water,
Frae Forth tae Clyde;
Or the reverse, wi’ weary splatter,
An’ sweaty side.

But little think we what’s in noddles,
Whar Science sits an’ grapes and guddlcs,
Syne darklins forth frae drumly puddles,
Brings forth to view
That the weak penetration fuddles O’ me an’ you.

Wi’ something that the learned ca’ steam;
By it she through the water plashes,
An’ out the stream behiut her dashes
At sic a rate, baith frogs and fishes
Are forced to scud,
Like ducks and drakes amang the rashes,
To shun the mud.

Can e’er, thought I, a flame o’ reek,
Or boiling water’s cauldron smeek,
Tho’ it war keepit for a week,
Perform sic wonders,
As quite surprises maist the folks
O’ gazin’ hunders?

But facts, we canna well dispute them,
Altho’ we little ken about them;
When prejudice inclines to doubt them
Wi’ a’ her might
Plain demonstration deep can root them,
An’ set us right.

Or lang gae now, wi’ whirligigs
An’ steam engines we’ll plough our rigs,
An’ gang about on easy legs
Wi’ nought to pain us,
But flit in tethers needless nags
That used to hain us.

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William Muir (published 1803)

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