Now bleezin bright,

A tight, outlandish Hizzie, braw,

Come full in sight.

To ev'ry nobler virtue bred,

She boasts a race,
And polish'd grace.

By stately tow'r or palace fair
Or ruins pendent in the air,
Bold stems of heroes, here and there,
I could discern;

Some seem'd to muse, some seem'd to dare,
With feature stern.

The Wallaces. † William Wallace Adam Wallace, of Richardton, cousin to the immortal preserver of Scottish independence.

Wallace, Laird of Craigie, who was second in command, under Douglas earl of Ormond, at the famous battle on the banks of Sark, fought anno 1448. That glorious victory was principally owing to the judicious conduct, and intrepid valour of the gallant Laird of Craigie, who died of his wounds after the action.

Coilus, king of the Picts, from whom the district of Kyle is said to take its name, lies buried, as tradition says, near the family-seat of the Montgomeries of Coil'efield, where his burial-place is still shown.

Barskimming the seat of the Lord Justice-Clerk. **Catrine, the seat of the late doctor and present professor Stewart.

PER CONTRA.

In vain the burns came down like waters,

An acre braid!

Now ev'ry auld wife, greetin, clatters,
Tam Samson's dead!

Owre many a weary hag he limpit, An' ay the tither shot he thumpit, Till coward death behind him jumpit, Wi' deadly feide; Now he proclaims, wi' tout o' trumpet, Tam Samson's dead!

The following Poem will, by many reader, 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.

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 Downanst dance,
Or owre the lays, in splendid blaze,
On sprightly coursers prance;
Or for Colean the route is ta'en,

Beneath the moon's pale beams;
There, up the cove, to stray an' rove
Amang the rocks and streams
To sport that night.

II.

Amang the bonnie winding banks,
Where Doon rins, wimpling clear,
Where Brucell ance rul'd the martial ranks,
An' shook his Carrick spear,

*Killic is a phrase the country-folks sometimes use for Kilmarnock.

Is thought to be 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.

A noted cavern near Colean-house, called The Cove of Colean; which, as Cassilis Downans, is famed in country story for being a favourite haunt of fairies. The famous family of that name, the ancestors of Robert, the great deliverer of his country, were Earls of Carrick.