But by thy honest turf I'll wait, Who shall say that fortune grieves him, While the star of hope she leaves him? Me, nae cheerfu' twinkle lights me; Dark despair around benights me. I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy, Naething could resist my Nancy; Farewell, ye dungeons dark and strong, But to see her was to love her ; The wretch's destinie ! Love but her, and love for ever. Macpherson's time will not be long Had we never loved sae kindly, Had we never loved sae blindly, Never met-or never parted, We had ne'er been broken-hearted. Fare-thee-weel, thou first and fairest ! Fare-thee-weel, thou best and dearest ! Thine be ilka joy and treasure, Peace, enjoyment, love, and pleasure ! Ae fond kiss, and then we sever ; I scorn him yet again! Ae fareweel, alas ! for ever! Untie these bands from off my hands, Deep in heart-wrung tears I 'll pledge thee, And bring to me my sword ; Warring sighs and groans I 'll wage thee ! And there's no a man in all Scotland, But I'll brave him at a word. I've lived a life of sturt and strife ; My Bonny Mary. I die by treacherie ; Go fetch to me a pint o' wine, It burns my heart I must depart And fill it in a silver tassie; And not avenged be. That I may drink, before I go, A service to my bonny lassie; Now farewell light--thou sunshine bright, The boat rocks at the pier o' Leith, And all beneath the sky! Fu' loud the wind blaws frae the Ferry; May coward shame distain his name, The ship rides by the Berwick-law, And I maun leave my bonny Mary. The trumpets sound, the banners fly, The glittering spears are ranked ready; The shouts o' war are heard afar, The battle closes thick and bloody; But it's not the roar o' sea or shore All freshly steeped in morning dews. Wad make me langer wish to tarry ; Nor shouts o' war that's heard afar — It's leaving thee, my bonny Mary. Mary Morison. One of my juvenile works.' --Burns. 'Of all the productions But life to me 's a weary dream, of Burns, the pathetic and serious love-songs which he has left behind him in the manner of old ballads, are perhaps those which A dream of ane that never wauks. take the deepest and most lasting hold of the mind." Such are the lines of Mary Morison, &c.'-HAZLITT. The wanton coot the water skims, Amang the reeds the ducklings cry, O Mary, at thy window be, The stately swan majestic swims, It is the wished, the trysted hour! And everything is blessed but I. Those smiles and glances let me see, That make the miser's treasure poor : How blithely wad I bide the stoure, A weary slave frae sun to sun, Could I the rich reward secure, The lovely Mary Morison. Yestreen when to the trembling string The dance gaed through the lighted ha, To thee my fancy took its wing, I sat, but neither heard nor saw. Come, Winter, with thine angry howl, Though this was fair, and that was braw, And raging bend the naked tree : And yon the toast of a' the town, I sighed, and said amang them a', “Ye are na Mary Morison.' O Mary, canst thou wreck his peace, Wha for thy sake wad gladly die? *These exquisitely affecting stanzas contain the essence of a Or canst thou break that heart of his, thousand love-tales.' --SCOTT. Whase only faut is loving thee? Ae fond kiss, and then we sever ; If love for love thou wilt na gie, Ae fareweel, alas ! for ever! At least be pity to me shewn; Deep in heart-wrung tears I 'll pledge thee, A thought ungentle canna be Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee. The thought o' Mary Morison. 193 65 And frae his harp sic strains did flow, Might roused the slumbering dead to hear ; But oh! it was a tale of woe, As ever met a Briton's ear. He sang wi' joy the former day, He weeping wailed his latter times ; But what he said it was nae play- I winna ventur 't in my rhymes. To Mary in Heaven. Thou ling’ring star, with less'ning ray, That lov'st to greet the early morn, Again thou usher'st in the day My Mary from my soul was torn. O Mary! dear departed shade ! Where is thy place of blissful rest? See'st thou thy lover lowly laid ? Hear'st thou the groans that rend his breast? That sacred hour can I forget, Can I forget the hallowed grove, Where by the winding Ayr we met, To live one day of parting love ! Eternity will not efface Those records dear of transports past; Thy image at our last embrace ; Ah! little thought we 'twas our last ! Ayr, gurgling, kissed his pebbled shore, "O'erhung with wild woods, thick’ning green ! A Vision.* The fragrant birch, and hawthorn hoar, Twined am'rous round the raptured scene; The flow'rs sprang wanton to be prest, The birds sang love on every spray- Till soon, too soon, the glowing west Proclaimed the speed of winged day. Still o'er these scenes my mem'ry wakes, And fondly broods with miser care ! Time but th' impression stronger makes, As streams their channels deeper wear. My Mary! dear departed shade Where is thy place of blissful rest ? See'st thou thy lover lowly laid ? Hear'st thou the groans that rend his breast ? * Burns, in his ‘Remarks on Scottish Songs,' written for the Athort the list they start and shift, Laird of Glenriddel, has described the above parting scene. My Highland lassie,' he says, 'was a warm-hearted, charming young Like fortune's favours, tint as win. creature as ever blessed a man with generous love. After a pretty | long tract of the most ardent reciprocal attachment, we met by By heedless chance I turned mine eyes, appointment on the second Sunday of May, in a sequestered spot And, by the moonbeam, shook to see by the banks of Ayr, where we spent the day in taking a farewell before she should embark for the West Highlands to arrange A stern and stalwart ghaist arise, matters among her friends for our projected change of life. At Attired as minstrels wont to be. the close of autumn following she crossed the sea to meet me at Greenock, where she had scarce landed when she was seized with Had I a statue been o' stane, a malignant fever, which hurried my dear girl to the grave in a few days before I could even 'hear of her illness." Cromek heightens His darin' look had daunted me; the interesting picture : 'The lovers stood on each side of a small And on his bonnet graved was plain, purling brook; they laved their hands in its limpid stream, and The sacred posy-Libertie!' holding a Bible between them pronounced their vows to be faithful to each other. They parted, never to meet again.' Subsequent investigation has lessened the romance of this pure love-passage * A favourite walk of Burns, during his residence in Dumfries, in the poet's life. The 'pretty long tract of attachment, if we was one along the right bank of the river above the town, terminat- take the expression literally, must have been before Burns's acing at the ruins of Lincluden Abbey and Church, which occupy a quaintance with Jean Armour, who soon eclipsed all the other romantic situation on a piece of rising ground in the angle at the rustic heroines. When Jean and her parents so ruthlessly broke oft junction of the Cluden Water with the Nith. These ruins include the connection, Burns turned to Highland Mary; but when Mary many fine fragments of ancient decorative architecture, and are embarked for the West Highlands, Jean Armour again obtained the enshrined in a natural scene of the utmost beauty. Burns, accord ascendant, and four weeks after the parting with Mary (June ra), ing to his eldest son, often mused amidst the Lincluden ruins. we find the poet writing : Never man loved, or rather adored, a There is one position on a little mount, to the south of the church, woman more than I did her (Jean Armour); and to confess a truth, where a couple of landscapes of witching loveliness are obtained, I do still love her to distraction.' Mary is no more heard of, and set, as it were, in two of the windows of the ancient building. It is not mentioned by Burns till three years after her decease. Her was probably the Calvary of the ancient church precinct. This premature death had recalled her love and her virtues, and emthe younger Burns remembered to have been a favourite resting-balmed them for ever. The parting scene was exalted and halplace of the poet. lowed in his imagination, and kept sacred--not, perhaps, without Such is the locality of the grand and thrilling ode, entitled A some feeling of remorse. To Dr Moore, to his Ayrshire friends, Vision, in which he hints-for more than a hint could not be and to Clarinda he spoke freely of all his early loves except that of ventured upon-his sense of the degradation of the ancient manly Mary: his vows to her seem never to have been whispered to spirit of his country under the conservative terrors of the passing any ear but her own. The rapid changes illustrate the poet's era.-CHAMBERS's Burns. mobility,' or excessive susceptibility of immediate impressions, Bowers, adieu! where love decoying, First enthralled this heart o'mine; There the saftest sweets enjoying, RICHARD GALL (1776-1800), whilst employed Sweets that memory ne'er shall tine! as a printer in Edinburgh, threw off some Scottish Friends so dear my bosom ever, songs that became favourites. My Only Fo and Ye hae rendered moments dear; Dearie 0, for pleasing fancy and musical expres But, alas ! when forced to sever, sion, is not unworthy of Tannahill. I remember,' Then the stroke, oh, how severe ! says Allan Cunningham, when this song was ex Friends, that parting tear reserve it, ceedingly popular : its sweetness and ease, rather Though 'tis doubly dear to me; than its originality and vigour, might be the Could I think I did deserve it, cause of its success. The third verse contains a How much happier would I be! very beautiful picture of early attachment-a Scenes of woe and scenes of pleasure, sunny bank, and some sweet soft school-girl, will Scenes that former thoughts renew; appear to many a fancy when these lines are Scenes of woe and scenes of pleasure, sung: Now a sad and last adieu ! ALEXANDER WILSON. ALEXANDER Wilson, a distinguished naturThy neck is like the siller-dew alist, was also a good Scottish poet. He was a Upon the banks sae briery 0; native of Paisley, and born July 6, 1766. He was Thy teeth are o' the ivory, brought up to the trade of a weaver, but afterOh, sweet's the twinkle o' thine ee ! wards preferred that of a pedlar, selling muslin Nae joy, nae pleasure, blinks on me, and other wares. In 1789 he added to his other My only jo and dearie O. commodities a prospectus of a volume of poems, The birdie sings upon the thorn trusting, as he said, Its sang o' joy, fu cheerie 0, If the pedlar should fail to be favoured with sale, Rejoicing in the summer morn, Then I hope you 'll encourage the poet. He did not succeed in either character; and after Aught o' the cares I hae to meet, publishing his poems, he returned to the loom. That gar my restless bosom beat, În 1792 he issued anonymously his best poem, My only jo and dearie O. Watty and Meg, which was at first attributed to Whan we were bairnies on yon brae, Burns.* A foolish personal satire, and a not very And youth was blinking bonny 0, wise admiration of the principles of equality disAft we wad daff the lee-lang day, seminated at the time of the French Revolution, Our joys fu' sweet and mony O; drove Wilson to America in the year 1794. There Aft I wad chase thee o'er the lea, he was once more a weaver and a pedlar, and And round about the thorny tree, afterwards a schoolmaster. A love of ornithology Or pu' the wild-flowers a' for thee, gained upon him, and he wandered over America, My only jo and dearie 0. collecting specimens of birds. In 1808 appeared his first volume of American Ornithology, and he I hae a wish I canna tine, continued collecting and publishing, traversing 'Mang a' the cares that grieve me 0; I wish thou wert for ever mine, swamps and forests in quest of rare birds, and And never mair to leave me o: undergoing the greatest "privations and fatigues, Then I wad daut thee night and day, till he had committed an eighth volume to the Nor ither warldly care wad hae, press. He sank under his severe labours on the Till life's warm stream forgot to play, 23d of August 1813, and was interred with public My only jo and dearie 0. honours at Philadelphia. In the Ornithology of Wilson we see the fancy and descriptive powers of the poet. The following extract is part of his Farewell to Ayrshire. account of the bald eagle, and is extremely vivid This song of Gall's has often been printed as the composition of and striking: Burns, a copy in Burns's handwriting having been found among his papers. The Bald Eagle. Scenes of woe and scenes of pleasure, The celebrated cataract of Niagara is a noted place of Scenes that former thoughts renew ; resort for the bald eagle, as well on account of the fish Scenes of woe and scenes of pleasure, procured there, as for the numerous carcases of squirrels, Now a sad and last adieu ! deer, bears, and various other animals that, in their Bonny Doon, sae sweet at gloaming, attempts to cross the river above the falls, have been Fare-thee-weel before I gang dragged into the current, and precipitated down that Bonny Doon, where, early roaming, tremendous gulf, where, among the rocks that bound the First I weaved the rustic sang! rapids below, they furnish a rich repast for the vulture, the raven, and the bald eagle, the subject of the present which also characterised Byron, and which Byron, less reticent, account. He has been long known to naturalists, being has defended: "Tis merely what is called mobility * As Burns was one day sitting at his desk by the side of the A thing of temperament and not of art, window, a well-known hawker, Andrew Bishop, went past crying : Though seeming so from its supposed facility : Watty and Meg, a new ballad, by Robert Burns. The poet And false, though true ; for surely they 're sincerest looked out and said: That's a lee, Andrew, but I would make Who are strongly acted on by what is nearest. your plack a bawbee if it were mine. This we heard Mrs Burns, Don Juan, c. xvi. the poet's widow, relate. 195 common to both continents, and occasionally met with and, after admiring for some time the beautiful simfrom a very high northern latitude to the borders of the plicity of nature, gave her willing consent, and the little torrid zone, but chiefly in the vicinity of the sea, and fellow went off on the wings of ecstacy to execute his along the shores and cliffs of our lakes and large rivers. delightful commission. Formed by nature for braving the severest cold, feeding The similarity of this little boy's enthusiasm to my equally on the produce of the sea and of the land, pos- own struck me, and the reader will need no explanations sessing powers of flight capable of outstripping even the of mine to make the application. Should my country tempests themselves, unawed by anything but man, and, receive with the same gracious indulgence the specimens from the ethereal heights to which he soars, looking which I here humbly present her ; should she express abroad at one glance on an immeasurable expanse of a desire for me to go and bring her more, the highest forests, fields, lakes, and ocean deep below him, he appears wishes of my ambition will be gratified; for, in the indifferent to the little localities of change of seasons, language of my little friend, our whole woods are full as in a few minutes he can pass from summer to winter, of them, and I can collect hundreds more, much handfrom the lower to the higher regions of the atmosphere, somer than these. the abode of eternal cold, and from thence descend at will to the torrid or the arctic regions of the earth. The ambition of the poet-naturalist was amply In procuring fish, he displays, in a very singular gratified. manner, the genius and energy of his character, which is fierce, contemplative, daring, and tyrannical ; attributes not exerted but on particular occasions, but when A Village Scold. From · Watty and Meg:' put forth, overpowering all opposition. Elevated on the l' the thrang o'stories tellin', high dead limb of some gigantic tree that commands a Shakin' hands and jokin' queer, wide view of the neighbouring shore and ocean, he Swith ! a chap comes on the hallanseems calmly to contemplate the motions of the various feathered tribes that pursue their busy avocations below; "Mungo ! is our Watty here ?' the snow-white gulls slowly winnowing the air ; the Maggy's weel-kent tongue and hurry busy tringæ coursing along the sands ; trains of ducks Darted through him like a knise : streaming over the surface; silent and watchful cranes Up the door flew—like a fury intent and wading ; clamorous crows; and all the În came Watty's scoldin' wife. winged multitudes that subsist by the bounty of this vast liquid magazine of nature. High over all these, 'Nasty, gude-for-naething being ! hovers one whose action instantly arrests his whole O ye snuffy drucken sow! attention. By his wide curvature of wing, and sudden Bringin' wife and weans to ruin, suspension in air, he knows him to be the fish-hawk, Drinkin' here wi' sic a crew! settling over some devoted victim of the deep. His eye kindles at the sight, and balancing himself with "Rise ! ye drucken beast o' Bethel ! half-opened wings on the branch, he watches the Drink's your night and day's desire; result. Down, rapid as an arrow from heaven, descends Rise, this precious hour! or faith I'll the distant object of his attention, the roar of its wings Fling your whisky i' the fire ! reaching the ear as it disappears in the deep, making the surges foam around. At this moment the eager Watty heard her tongue unhallowed, looks of the eagle are all ardour ; and, levelling his Paid his groat wi' little din, neck for flight, he sees the fish-hawk once more emerge, Left the house, while Maggy followed, struggling with his prey, and mounting in the air with Flytin' a' the road behin'. screams of exultation. These are the signal for our hero, who, launching into the air, instantly gives chase, Folk frae every door came lampin', and soon gains on the fish-hawk; each exerts his ut Maggy curst them ane and a', most to mount above the other, displaying in these Clapped wi' her hands, and stampin', rencontres the most elegant and sublime aërial evolutions. Lost her bauchelsa i the snaw. The unencumbered eagle rapidly advances, and is just on the point of reaching his opponent, when, with a Hame, at length, she turned the gavel, sudden scream, probably of despair and honest execra Wi' a face as white's a clout, tion, the latter drops his fish: the eagle, poising himself Ragin' like a very devil, for a moment, as if to take a more certain aim, descends Kickin' stools and chairs about. like a whirlwind, snatches it in his grasp ere it reaches the water, and bears his ill-gotten booty silently away to • Ye 'll sit wi' your limmers round yethe woods. Hang you, sir, I'll be your death ! Little hauds my hands, consound you, By way of preface, to invoke the clemency of But I cleave you to the teeth!' the reader,' Wilson relates the following exquisite trait of simplicity and nature : Watty, wha, 'midst this oration, In one of my late visits to a friend in the country, I Eyed her whiles, but durst na speak, found their youngest son, a fine boy of eight or nine Sat, like patient Resignation, years of age, who usually resides in town for his educa Trembling by the ingle-cheek. tion, just returning from a ramble through the neighbouring woods and fields, where he had collected a Sad his wee drap brose he sippetlarge and very handsome bunch of wild-flowers, of a Maggy's tongue gaed like a bellgreat many different colours; and, presenting them to Quietly to his bed he slippet, his mother, said :'Look, my dear mamma, what beauti Sighin' aften to himsel : ful flowers I have found growing on our place! Why, all the woods are full of them ! red, orange, and blue, Nane are free frae some vexation, and 'most every colour. Oh ! I can gather you a whole Ilk ane has his ills to dree; parcel of them, much handsomer than these, all growing But through a' the hale creation in our own woods! Shall I, mamma? Shall I go and Is nae mortal vexed like me.' bring you more?' The good woman received the bunch of flowers with a smile of affectionate complacency; 1 Old shoes No anither night to lodge here- No a friend their cause to plead ! He's ta'en on to be a sodger, HECTOR MACNEILL (1746-1818) was brought up She wi' weans to beg her bread ! to a mercantile life, but was unsuccessful in most of his business affairs. In 1789, he published a The little domestic drama is happily wound up : legendary poem, The Harp, and in 1795, his Jeanie obtains a cottage and protection from the moral tale, Scotland's Skaith, or the History o' Duchess of Buccleuch ; and Will, after losing a Will and Jean. The object of this production leg in battle, returns, ' placed on Chelsea's bounty, was to depict the evil effects of intemperance. and finds his wife and family. A happy rural pair are reduced to ruin, descend Sometimes briskly, sometimes flaggin', ing by gradual steps till the husband is obliged Sometimes helpit, Will gat forth; to enlist as a soldier, and the wife to beg with On a cart, or in a wagon, her children through the country. The situation Hirpling aye towards the north. of the little ale-house where Will begins his unlucky potations is finely described. Tired ae e'ening, stepping hooly, Pondering on his thraward fate, In a howm, whose bonny burnie In the bonny month of July, Willie, heedless, tint his gate. Saft the southland breeze was blawing, Sweetly sughed the green aik wood; White the wa's, wi' roof new theekit, Loud the din o streams fast fa'ing, Strack the ear wi' thundering thud : Ewes and lambs on braes ran bleating; Linties chirped on ilka tree; Up the gavel-end, thick spreadin', Frae the west, the sun, near setting, Flamed on Roslin's towers sae hie. Roslin's towers and braes sae bonny! Craigs and water, woods and glen! Down below, a flowery meadow Roslin's banks, unpeered by ony, Save the Muses' Hawthornden ! Ilka sound and charm delighting, Will—though hardly fit to gang Wandered on through scenes inviting, Bottom, Will first marvelling sees * Porter, Ale, and British Spirits,' Listening to the mavis' sang. Painted bright between twa trees. Faint at length, the day fast closing, "Godsake, Tam! here's walth for drinking! On a fragrant strawberry steep, Wha can this new-comer be?' Esk's sweet stream to rest composing, Hout,' quo' Tam, there 's drouth in thinking Wearied nature drapt asleep. Let's in, Will, and syne we 'll see.' "Soldier, rise !--the dews o' e'ening The rustic friends have a jolly meeting, and do Gathering, fa' wi' deadly skaith Wounded soldier ! if complaining, not separate till "'tween twa and three' next Sleep na here, and catch your death.' morning. A weekly club is set up at Maggy Howe's, a newspaper is procured, and poor Will, Silent stept he on, poor fellow ! the hero of the tale, becomes a pot-house poli Listening to his guide before, tician, and soon goes to ruin. His wife also takes Ower green knowe and flowery hollow, to drinking. Till they reached the cot-house door. Laigh it was, yet sweet and humble ; Decked wi' honeysuckle round; Clear below, Esk's waters rumble, Deep glens murmuring back the sound. Melville's towers, sae white and stately, Dim by gloaming glint to view ; Through Lasswade's dark woods keek sweetly But war ony half sae fair? Skies sae red, and lift sae blue. Entering now, in transport mingle Mother fond and happy wean, Smiling round a canty ingle, Bleezing on a clean hearthstane. •Soldier, welcome ! come, be cheeryClaise and cash and credit out Here ye'se rest and tak' your bed- Faint, wae's me! ye seem, and weary, Pale 's your cheek, sae lately red ! • Changed I am,' sighed Willie till her ; Ilka sheaf selt on the bent ; 'Changed, nae doubt, as changed can be ! Cattle, beds, and blankets roupit, Yet, alas ! does Jeanie Miller Nought o' Willie Gairlace see?' 197 |