L-d, five!' he cry'd, an' owre did stagger; Tam Samson's dead!

Ilk hoary hunter mourn'd a brither; Ilk sportsman-youth bemoan'd a father; Yon auld grey stane, amang the heather,

Marks out his head,

Whare Burns has wrote, in rhyming blether, Tam Samson's dead!

There, low he lies, in lasting rest; Perhaps upon his mould'ring breast Some spitefu' muirfowl bigs her nest,

To hatch an' breed:

Alas! nae mair he'll them molest !

Tam Samson's dead!

When August winds the heather wave, And sportsmen wander by yon grave,

Three vollies let his mem'ry crave

He had twa fauts, or may be three,

Yet what remead?

Ae social, honest man want we:

Tam Samson 's dead!

THE EPITAPH.

TAM SAMSON's weel-worn clay here lies, Ye canting zealots, spare him!

If honest worth in Heaven rise,

Ye'll mend or ye win near him.

PER CONTRA.

Go, Fame, an' canter like a filly Thro' a' the streets an' neuks o' Killie*, Tell every social, honest billie

To cease his grievin,

For yet, unskaith'd by Death's gleg gullie, Tam Samson's livin.

*Killie is a phrase the country-folks sometimes use

for the name of a certain town in the West.

THE following POEM will, by many readers, be well enough understood; but for the sake of those who are unacquainted with the manners and traditions of the country where the scene is cast, NOTES are added, to give some account of the principal charms and spells of that night, so big with prophecy to the peasantry in the West of Scotland. The passion of prying into futurity makes a striking part of the history of human nature in its rude state, in all ages and nations; and it may be some entertainment to a philosophic mind, if any such should honour the author with a perusal, to see the remains of it, among the more unenlightened in our own.

HALLOWEEN.*

"Yes! let the rich deride, the proud disdain, "The simple pleasures of the lowly train: "To me more dear, congenial to my heart,

"One native charm, than all the gloss of art."

GOLDSMITH.

I.

UPON that night, when fairies light,
On Cassilis Downans † dance,

Is thought to be a night when witches, devils, and other mischief-making beings, are all abroad on their baneful, midnight errands; particularly those aerial people, the fairies, are said, on that night to hold a grand anniversary.

+ Certain little, romantic, rocky, green hills, in the neighbourhood of the ancient seat of the Earls of Cassilis.