Prophecies of Thomas Rymer (2)/Chapter 3

OLD

Scottish Prophecies,

BY

THOMAS RYMER,

PART II.

 

 

When Hempe is come, and also gone,
Scotland and England shall be one.

 

 

HEMPE.

Praised be GOD alone,
For Hempe is come and gone,
And left us old Albion,
By peace join'd in one.

The explication of the foregoing prophecy, concerning Hempe being come, and also gone, and leaving Scotland and England joined in one, is fulfilled in the late King William, who came out of Holland, which in old times was vulgarly called the land of Hempe: and the joining of the two nations together, signifies the Union.

These things were foretold by the two Scots Prophets, in the reign of King Arthur. First, by the marvellous Merling, who is said to be got by a Devil, who ravished a young Woman, his mother, in a wood near Coldstream, in the South of Scotland. Afterwards, to the same purpose, these and many more strange things were foretold by Thomas Lermon, vulgarly called, Thomas Rymer, because he spoke all his prophetical sayings in rhyme, and so darkly, that they could not be understood until they came to pass.

But of all the Prophets that ever were in Scotland, there never was any of them who attained to such credit, because many of his predictions referred to our own country, and were accomplished in the last and present century.

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