Observer, and conducted the paper with such ability and vigour that the managers of the Edinburgh Courant invited him to become editor of that metropolitan paper. He died a few years ago at Ayr. Robert M'Aslan, a native of Glasgow, and son of a manufacturer there, studied at the University, and afterwards resided in Paisley for some years as a partner in the firm of M'Aslan & Muir, Nethercommon. He emigrated to Auckland, New Zealand, where he died some years ago. He had a fine literary taste, and contributed many excellent poetical pieces to newspapers and other periodicals. John Robertson, author of The Toom Meal Pock (introduction to Harp, page 69), was the son of a grocer in Paisley, and was apprenticed in early life to a weaver, but his literary tastes led him to scorn the loom, and in the society of Alexander Wilson, Ebenezer Picken, and other votaries of the Muse, he passed the time congenially that should have been devoted to business. His father became involved in pecuniary difficulties, and Robertson found it necessary to give more attention to work, and for some time did so. He soon grew tired of industry, and enlisted in a Militia regiment, where his literary abilities speedily attracted the attention of his commanding officer, who appointed him to an extra regimental clerkship. He was an excellent artist, and a proficient in music. In 1809 and 1810, when several Scottish Militia regiments were quartered in the South of England, he and James King, a fellowtownsman and poet, who held an appointment similar to his own, often met. King thus wrote regarding his friend :-" In his company I passed some of the pleasantest hours that I spent in the army. At our interviews I was often indulged with a perusal of his MSS.; but how sadly was the spirit of his song changed. The earlier part of his writings breathed a liveliness that in the compositions of his riper years had given way to the elegiac, and from the lengthened, well-designed, and soaring poem he had descended to the dull sonnet of fourteen lines, or ode of three or four stanzas. In 1810, when the regiment I belonged to was quartered in Portsmouth, his battalion arrived in Hilsea, three miles distant, and as I had just received a letter from Tannahill-the last I got from him-I walked out to see him a few days after his arrival, expecting a 'feast of reason' for an hour or two; but as I approached the barrack gate, I passed over a quantity of loose earth and stones, upon which several soldiers stood, looking very pensively down. I inquired of them where I would find my friend, but none seemed willing to give me an answer. At length one of them, pointing to the loose earth and stones, informed me that I had just walked over him, and, had I been a little sconer, I should have seen him buried. 'Poor man,' said he, 'your friend raised his hand against himself, and was buried here just as he was found.'" William Chalmers was a tobacconist in Paisley, but, being unfortunate in this business, he engaged successively in many undertakings, and finally kept a refreshment stall at Paisley Railway Station. born in 1779, and died in 1843. Rev. Mathew Rodger, He was a native of the parish of Erskine, where for many generations his ancestors possessed the estate of Rossland. He studied at the University of Glasgow, and since he was licensed in 1855 has held charges as a minister of the Church of Scotland at Crieff, Shettleston, and St. Andrew's. He is now minister of the College Church of St. Andrews. Rev. Alex. Rennison, M.A., a native of Berwick-on-Tweed, was born in 1807. His father was Mr. John Rennison, a respected bookseller in that town. He was educated at the Grammar School, and afterwards was a distinguished student at Edinburgh University. He was ordained pastor of a church in Lancashire in 1839, and in 1844 was elected by the congregation of St. George's Church, Paisley, where he laboured with much acceptance until his death in 1867. INDEX. Ae day in May the maids and men, Ae day a peacock nest I gat, As I came o'er the moor yestreen, Again I court the Muse's friendly aid, A jolly comrade in the port, a fearless mate at sea, A cloud lay cradled near the setting sun, A maiden was lovely, a maiden was young, A scene most sternly solemn, A lovelier spot in this wide world, As one who leaves some blessed isle, Ah, my First! a little space, Ae day auld Clootie shook his fetters, Art thou the weapon which in days of yore, Again I've sought in musing mood, A Pat-an odd joker-and Yankee more sly, Come hame to your lingels, ye ne'er-do-weel loon, Cooper Davie gat a wife, Allan, 182 Come wander with me where the sweet scented rose, Park, 214 Consider the sparrows, the little house sparrows, Dearest-My heart and ey are wholly now, M'Alpie, 39 Dear John-I yours received with hand and mind, Go up among the mountains, when the storm, Gae sing o' saunts an' seers o' auld, Great is your age!--but greater far the Nile's, How pleasant is the midnight hour, Have you seen the old tree that stands lone on the moor, Maclaren, 137 He's in hot youth, who, with a hasty step, . How I long for a home in some green shady place, Here would the poet sit and sing, Her black jet locks, in playful ringlets fall, Instade of rendring thanks to God, Dick, 348 Gibson, 352 Alexander, 452 It chanced three merry fairies met, It was a dreadful day when late I passed, In days when Scotland dealt in war, I gaed out yestreen atween eight hours and ten, |