matters which recommended me as a proper second in duels of that kind; and I daresay I felt as much pleasure at being in the secrets of half the amours of the parish, as ever did Premier at knowing the intrigues of half the Courts of Europe." Mr. Scott Douglas is inclined to adhere, with all deference to the poet's direct statement, and regard this song, to Tibbie Stein, as belonging to the Mount Oliphant period, its incident following immediately after the summer Burns spent at Kirkoswald. He suspects that the country dancingschool would be in the village of Dalrymple; and the second verse of the song, he thinks, refers to the road from Dalrymple parish church, where, as may be supposed, the Burns family would occasionally attend. Even the strathspey to which the poet composed the words, he says, would seem to have some connection with that dancing-school, which it is likely Robert attended alone, and perhaps unknown to the younger members of the family. As regards the pleasure he felt at being in the secret of half the amours in the parish, it may be taken for granted that, conjointly with the acquisition of this knowledge, he was ready, on occasion, to act the part of "blackfoot" to his fellows (he all but confesses it, indeed), even thoughhaving a decided "way" with the lasses-he seldom required secondary assistance of the kind himself. John Lees, shoemaker, Tarbolton, yet, used to tell how, as a stripling, he had acted as "blackfoot" to Burns in more than one of his courting expeditions. The old man spoke with much glee of the aid he had given the poet in the way of asking out lasses for him. But-and he would add this with a chuckle, no doubt as soon as he succeeded in bringing the girl out of doors, Burns would say: "Now, Jock, you can gang hame." 66 'MONTGOMERIE'S PEGGY" MONTOMERIE'S PEGGY was his deity for six or eight months. Nought else is known of her (her surname even has not come down), but that she was housekeeper at Coilsfield House, the Castle of Montgomerie—where, at a later period, Mary Campbell acted as byreswoman; that Burns and she sat in the same church, and that they met frequently at Tarboth Mill. "She had been bred," writes the poet, "though, as the world says, without any just pretence for it, in a style of life rather elegant. But, as Vanburgh says in one of his comedies, my damn'd star found me out,' there too; for, though I began the affair merely in a gaieté de cœur, or, to tell the truth, what would scarcely be believed, a vanity of showing my parts in courtship, particularly my abilities at a billet doux, which I always piqued myself upon, made me lay siege to her; and when, as I always do in my foolish gallantries, I had battered myself into a very warm affection for her, she told me one day in a flag of truce, that her fortress had been for some time before the rightful property of another." How frank he is! Most men, since there was no call for exposure, would have burned the song or never told its story. But not so Robert Burns. He wore his heart on his sleeve, and, sparing not others, he spared not himself. By the time he came to write the song he was evidently in extreme earnest. "It cost some heart aches," he confesses, "to get rid of the affair." MONTGOMERIE'S PEGGY. Altho' my bed were in yon muir, Had I my dear Montgomerie's Peggy. When o'er the hill beat surly storms, I'd shelter dear Montgomerie's Peggy. Were I a Baron proud and high, And horse and servants waiting ready, Then a' 'twad gie o' joy to me, The sharin't wi' Montgomerie's Peggy. PEGGY THOMSON ANOTHER flame of this period, and of an earlier hour than Tibbie Stein, or "Montgomerie's Peggy," was Peggy Thomson, with whom he forgathered when attending school at Kirkoswald. "I spent my seventeenth summer," he tells Dr. Moore, "a good distance from home, at a noted school on a smuggling coast, to learn mensuration, surveying, dialling, etc., in which I made a pretty good progress. But I made a greater progress in the knowledge of mankind. Yet I went on with a high hand in my geometry, till the sun entered Virgo, a month that is always a carnival in my bosom. A charming fillette, who lived next door to the school, overset my trigonometry, and set me off in a tangent from the spheres of my studies. I struggled on with my sines and co-sines for a few days more, but, stepping out to the garden one charming noon to take the sun's altitude, I met with my angel. 'Like Proserpine gathering flowers, Herself a fairer flower.' It was in vain to think of doing any more good at school. The remaining week I stayed I did nothing but craze the faculties of my soul about her; and the two last nights of my stay in the country, had sleep been a mortal sin, I was innocent." His one song celebrating this Peggy is one of the few that appear in the Kilmarnock edition of his poems, issued in 1786. 66 MY PEGGY'S CHARMS. Now westlin winds and slaught'ring guns Now waving grain, wide o'er the plain, And the moon shines bright, when I rove at night To muse upon my charmer.* The partridge loves the fruitfull fells, Thus ev'ry kind their pleasure find, The savage and the tender; Some social join, and leagues combine; Some solitary wander; Avaunt, away, the cruel sway! Tyrannic man's dominion; The sportman's joy, the murd'ring cry, But, Peggy dear, the ev'ning's clear, The sky is blue, the fields in view, * A version seen in MS. at Mossgiel had "Armour' instead of Charmer," and "Jeanie " instead of " Peggy " in the fourth verse. |