EDITOR,

HENRY ADAMSON.

DIED 1639.

BY CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D. D.D.S.

PRESIDENT OF THE YORKSHIRE LITERARY SOCIETY; "YORKSHIRE POETS, PAST AND PRESENT; "THE POETS OF KEIGHLEY, BINGLEY AND HAWORTH," ETC.; AUTHOR OF "ST. Bees, AND OTHER POEMS," ETC., ETC.

SUFFICIENT matter for a life of this poet, in proportion to the value and worth of his poems, it is impossible to obtain. What little is known of him appears in the preface to a very elaborate edition of his "Muses Threnodie," issued by the Scotch antiquary, James Cant; two volumes, 1774. The date of our author's birth is enveloped in a mist of considerable obscurity. He was the son of James Adamson, of Perth (where he is supposed to have been born), who had been Dean of Guild in 1600, and Provost in 1610 and 1611. The full title of the volume whereby Adamson is entitled to figure in these pages is "The Muses Threnodie, or Mirthful Mourning on the Death of "Master Gall. Containing varietie of pleasant poeticall descriptions, morall "instructions, historical narrations, and Divine observations, with the most "remarkable antiquities of Scotland, especially at Perth." (Edinburgh, 1638; 4-to). The multifarious contents of the volume fulfil to a nicety, and amply justify this lengthy title. Immediately before the elegy, is a humorous delineation in rhymed octosyllabic verse, of the curiosities, which the owner whimsically termed his "gabions" in Mr. George Ruthven's closet. The elegy itself gives a long account of the antiquities of Perth and neighbourhood, with a description of the Gowry Conspiracy; Ruthven and Gall are introduced as speakers, and the “Gabions" are made to bear a part. It was

B

chiefly owing to the encouragement and advice of William Drummond [q.v.] of Hawthornden (author of "The History of Scotland, under the five Jameses," and of several volumes of poems), that Adamson published his work. In 1639, the year after its publication, the author died suddenly. He had been trained for the pulpit, though there is no record of his ever having been ordained.

The Muses Threnodie

EXT. 4TH MUSE.

When Edward Langshanks Scotland did surprise,
The strength first did he take as Christian wise;
But his chief strength to keep both south and north,
Lowlands and Highlands on this side of Forth,
Perth did he chuse, and strongly fortifie

With garrison of foot and cavalrie.

And what the former times could not outred,

In walls and fowsils; these accomplished.*

Then after worthy Wallace first expelled them,

And for to leave these walls by force compelled them
Whom after foughten was that fatal field,
Wofull Falkirk, envie did force to yield
Up his government: to Perth then came,
And in the nobles presence quatre the same.
Lean fac'd envie doth often bring a nation
To civill discord, shame and desolation.
Such bitter fruit we found, to all confusion
At once did run, was nothing but effusion
Of guiltlesse blood: our enemies did take
Our strength again, and all things went to wrake.
Such was our woefull state, unto the time

That brave king Robert Bruce, came to this clime,
Most happily, yet small beginnings had,
For many years before this land he fred
From enemies rage, till wisely he at length
By soft recoiling recollected strength;

Then came to Perth, and did the same besiege
And take, who through pursuit and cruel rage
Killed Scots and English; all were in it found,
Brake down the walls, them equall'd to the ground.

After Falkirk, 1298.

BY THE REV. CHAS. ROGERS, LL.D. F.S.A. F.R.H.S.

EDITOR, "THE MODERN SCOTTISH MINSTREL," LATE
HISTORIOGRAPHER ΤΟ THE ROYAL

HISTORICAL SOCIETY, ETC.

HUGH AINSLIE was born on the 5th April, 1792, at Bargeny Mains, in the parish of Dailly, and county of Ayr. Receiving the rudiments of education from a private teacher in his father's house, he entered the parish school of Ballantrae, in his tenth year, and afterwards became a pupil in the academy of Ayr. A period of bad health induced him to forego the regular prosecution of learning, and having quitted the academy, he accepted employment as an assistant gardener on the estate of Sir Hew Dalrymple Hamilton. At the age of sixteen he entered the writing chambers of a legal gentleman in Glasgow, but the confinements of the office proving uncongenial, he took a hasty departure, throwing himself on the protection of some relatives at Roslin, near Edinburgh. His father's family soon after removed to Roslin, and through the kindly interest of Mr. Thomas Thomson, Deputy Clerk Register, he procured a clerkship in the General Register House, Edinburgh. For some months he acted as amanuensis to Professor Dugald Stewart, in transcribing his last work for the press.

Having entered into the married state, and finding the salary of his office in the Register House unequal to the comfortable maintenance of his family, he resolved to emigrate to the United States, in the hope of bettering his circumstances. Arriving at New York in July 1822, he made purchase of a farm in that state, and there resided the three following years. He next made a trial of the social system of Robert Owen, at New Harmony, but abandoned the project at the close of a year. In 1827 he entered into partnership with Messrs. Price and Wood, brewers in Cincinatti, and set up a branch of the establishment at Louisville. Removing to New Albany, Indiana, he there built a large brewery for a joint-stock company, and in 1832 erected in that place similar premises on his own account. The former was ruined by the great Ohio flood in 1832, and the latter perished by fire in 1834. He paid a brief visit to Scotland in 1864, and died at Louisville 11th March 1878. Early imbued with a love of song, Mr. Ainslie composed verses when a youth on the mountains of Carrick. Ainslie's best known book originated by its title, what is now an accepted descriptive name for the part of Scotland associated with Burns. It is "A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns," (1820) and consists of a narrative interspersed with sprightly lyrics. A collection of the poet's Scottish songs and ballads, of which the most popular is "The Rover of Loch Ryan," appeared in New York in 1855.

The Hameward Sang.

EACH whirl of the wheel,
Each step brings me nearer
The hame of my youth--
Every object grows dearer
Thae hills and thae huts,

And thae trees on that green,
Losh! they glower in my face
Like some kindly auld frien'.

E'en the brutes they look social,
As gif they would crack;
And the sang o' the birds
Seems to welcome me back.
Oh, dear to our hearts

Is the hand that first fed us,
And dear is the land

And the cottage that bred us.

And dear are the comrades

With whom we once sported,

And dearer the maiden

Whose love we first courted.

Joy's image may perish,
E'en grief die away;

But the scenes of our youth
Are recorded for aye.

The Lads an' the Land far wa'.

WHEN I think on the lads an' the land I ha'e left,
An' how love has been lifted, an' friendship been reft;
How the hinnie o' hope has been jumbled wi' ga',
Then I sigh for the lads an' the land far awa'.

When I think on the days o' delight we ha'e seen,
When the flame o' the spirit would spark in the een;
Then I say, as in sorrow I think on ye a',
Where will I find hearts like the hearts far awa'?

When I think on the nights we ha'e spent hand in hand,
Wi' mirth for our sowther, and friendship our band,
This world it gets dark; but ilk night has a daw',
And I yet may rejoice in the land far awa'!