For Campbell rade, but Myrie* staid, But Gard❜nert brave did still behave Mr. Myrie was a student of physic, from Jamaica; he entered as a volunteer in Cope's army, and was miserably mangled by the broad-sword. ti. e. He suffered severely in the cause. James Gardiner, colonel of a regiment of horse. This gentleman's conduct, however celebrated, does not seem to have proceeded so much from the generous ardour of a noble and heroic mind, as from a spirit of religious enthusiasm, and a bigoted reliance on the Presbyterian doctrine of predestination, which rendered it a matter of perfect indifference whether he left the field or remained in it. Being deserted by his troop, he was killed by a Highlander, with a Lochaber axe. Colonel Gardiner having, when a gay young man, at Paris, made an assignation with a lady, was, as he pretended, not only deterred from keeping his appointment, but thoroughly reclaimed from all such thoughts in future, by an apparition. See his Life by Doddridge. For king and laws, and country's cause, And major Bowle, that worthy soul, His horse being shot, it was his lot For to get mony a wound, man: Lieutenant Smith, of Irish birth, He made sic haste, sae spur'd his beast, To Berwick rade, and safely said, And Caddell drest, amang the rest, The cause was good, he'd spend his blood, But the night before he left the cor, But gallant Roger, like a soger, But mae down wi' him brought, man: Some Highland rogues, like hungry dogs, And they, as gain, for all their pain, At the thorn-tree, which you may see There mony slain lay on the plain, The clans pursuing still, man. Sic unco' hacks, and deadly whacks, I never saw the like, man; Lost hands and heads cost them their deads, That afternoon, when a' was done, TO THE WEAVERS GIN YE GO. THE Chorus of this song is old, the rest of it is mine.-Here, once for all, let me apologize for many silly compositions of mine in this work. Many beautiful airs wanted words; in the hurry of other avocations, if I could string a parcel of rhymes together any thing near tolerable, I was fain to let them pass. He must be an excellent poet indeed, whose every performance is excellent. STREPHON AND, LYDIA. Tune-THE GORDONS HAD THE GUIDING o't. THE following account of this song I had from Dr. Blacklock. The Strephon and Lydia mentioned in the song were perhaps the loveliest couple of their time. The gentleman was commonly known by the name of Beau Gibson. The lady was the Gentle Jean, celebrated somewhere in Mr. Hamilton* of Bangour's poems. Having frequently met at public places, they had formed a reciprocal attachment, * "With the elegant and accomplished WILLIAM HAMILTON of Bangour, whose amiable manners were long remembered with the tenderest recollection by all who knew him, Mr. Home lived in the closest habits of friendship. The Writer of these Memoirs has heard him dwell with delight on the scenes of their youthful days; and he has to regret that many an anecdote, to which he listened with pleasure, was not committed to a better record than a treacherous memory. Hamilton's mind is pictured in his verses. They are the easy and careless effusions of an elegant fancy and a chastened taste; and the sentiments they convey are the genuine feelings of a tender and susceptible heart, which perpetually owned the dominion of some favourite mistress; but whose passion generally evaporated in song, and made no serious or permanent impression. His poems had an additional charm to his cotemporaries, from being commonly addressed to his familiar friends of either sex." Life of Lord Kaimes, vol. i. p. 64. Hamilton died in March, 1754, aged 50. |