their frequent and welcome guest-and the air of the song was the composition of Glenriddell. The Friar's Carse, where they resided, is a lovely place. I have often felt the fragrance of the numerous flowers with which the garden is filled, and the fields covered, wafted over the Nith as I walked along its banks on a summer Sunday morning. The Hermitage, when I saw it last in 1808, was a refuge for cattle. The floor was littered deep with filth; the shrubs which surrounded it were browzed upon or broken down ; the hand of a Londoner, in endeavouring to abstract a pane of glass on which Burns had written some lines, had shivered it into fragments, which were strewn about the floor-I turned away in sorrow. It is now the property of Mrs. Crichton; and the haunt of the poet is respected. OCH HEY, JOHNIE LAD. Och hey, Johnie lad, Ye're no sae kind's ye should ha'e been! Och hey, Johnie lad, Ye didna keep your tryste yestreen! I waited lang beside the wood, Sae wae an' weary a' my lane; Och hey, Johnie lad, It was a waefu' night yestreen! I looked by the whinny knowe, An' ay I thought ye wad hae been. Ye're no sae kind's ye should ha'e been! Gin ye war waiting by the wood, It's I was waiting by the thorn; I thought it was the place we set, But be nae vext, my bonnie lass, Let my waiting stan' for thine; We'll awa' to Craigton shaw, An' seek the joys we tint yestreen. "Johnie lad" is an imitation of an old lively free song of the same name, which makes the heroine lament the insensibility of her lover to the advantage which a lonely place and a dark night gave him over her. Tannahill, in making the lovers mistake the place of tryste, has varied the story of the song at the expense of probability; but there is much truth and vivacity in the verses. THE FLOWER O' DUMBLANE. The sun has gane down o'er the lofty Benlomond, And left the red clouds to preside o'er the scene, While lanely I stray in the calm summer gloamin, To muse on sweet Jessie, the flow'r o' Dumblane. How sweet is the brier, wi' its saft fauldin' blossom! And sweet is the birk, wi' its mantle o' green; Yet sweeter and fairer, and dear to this bosom, Is lovely young Jessie, the flow'r o' Dumblane. She's modest as onie, and blithe as she's bonnie, And far be the villain, divested of feeling, Wha'd blight in its bloom the sweet flow'r o' Dum blane. Sing on, thou sweet mavis, thy hymn to the e'ening; How lost were my days till I met wi' my Jessie! I ne'er saw a nymph I would ca' my dear lassie, Till charm'd wi' sweet Jessie, the flow'r of Dum blane. Though mine were the station o' loftiest grandeur, And reckon as naething the height o' its splendour, There is less originality in the "Flower of Dumblane" than in most of Tannahill's songs. There is little said but what has been said as well before: the bloom of the brier, the bud of the birk, the song of the mavis, are all sweet things, but as common to lyric poetry as they are to nature. I WINNA GANG BACK. I winna gang back to my mammy again, Young Johnie came down i' the gloamin' to woo, He ca'd me his dawtie, his dearie, his dow, Some lassies will talk to the lads wi' their e'e, For mony lang year, sin' I play'd on the lea, The natural beauty and buoyancy of this little song is impaired by an air of affectation and childishness which Gall, as well as Macneill, mistook for the most engaging and endearing simplicity and singleness of heart. A young lady of eighteen, ambitious of domestic rule, and of becoming a wife and mother, would never prattle of her lover in this light-headed manner. O TELL ME HOW TO WOO THEE. If doughty deeds my lady please, And strong his arm, and fast his seat, That bears frae me the meed. I'll wear thy colours in my cap, And he that bends not to thine eye |