A brother's blood hath armed the wrath divine, Ismeno. Is it my monarch speaks? Tis, sure, illusion; Making him think and tremble like a woman. The Christian blood with which our lands o'erflow Atones for that which placed you on the And for your brother's murder,-Mahomet WILLIAM SUTTIE, who died, at Colliston, some years ago, wrote numerous songs of a simple character, mainly on themes dealing with local scenes and affairs. In 1847, a collection of these was published at Arbroath, in the form of a sixty page booklet, which is now very rare. Mr Suttie was in early life a weaver, and died, aged seventy-nine. TAYLOR, a farmer at Fetteresso, was given to occasional rhyming. Over date 1856, "Dogger versus Bumper," purporting to be "an ancient legend of Kilwhang," with rhyming introduction, appeared in an Aberdeen paper. The rhyme is very good of its kind, and describes the fight between a couple of liquor sellers, which the sheriff, eventually, had to settle. GEORGE TAYLOR published at Montrose, in 1888, a little volume of seventy-two pages, entitled "Delvings: by a Son of the Soil." The author was the son of a farmer of Strachan Parish in the Mearns, and a cousin of Joseph Grant and David Grant, both eminent poets noticed in these pages. There are ten longish pieces in the book, but their literary merit is of the slightest, though they are teeming with reflection and ideas of a somewhat radical character. An extract from one of the pieces will illustrate this : THE LAND QUESTION. But with increasing wealth we see The wintry wind with angry thuds Are shirtless backs and shoeless feet, Some have no homes wherein to dwell, That some great law must have been broken. JOHN TAYLOR, a youthful Dundonian, published last year a booklet of ninety-two pages of Poems, Songs, Sonnets, and Epistles, entitled, "Leisure Moments with the Muse." It contains some pieces very creditable to a self-taught man of twenty-three, a sample of which may be found in his FAREWELL TO MAULESDEN. "Twas Autumn time, the Maulesden woods Were drest in tints of yellow; And viewed the sorrowing glen, The summer suns will come again Nae joy to me ye'll bring; But still fond memory will reca' REV. J. TEASDALE who describes himself as "Minister of the English Chapel, Dundee "-published, in 1784, a volume of 172 pages of very good verses. The full title of the work is "Picturesque Poetry. Consisting of Poems, Odes, and Elegies, on Various Subjects." PATRICK HUNTER THOMS-known in the county of Angus as P. H. Thoms of Aberlemno, and in his native city as Provost Thoms-has some claim upon our attention here. Mr Thoms was an active public man, who, amid the bustle of business and municipal affairs, was much interested in literary matters, and was an occasional versifier; but his rhymes, which are mainly of a serious turn, are not such as good poetic reputations are built upon. Mr Thoms was born at Dundee in 1796, and died there in 1882. ANDREW THOMSON was a native of Kinnell, who was trained as a teacher and acted as such at Inverkeillor, Elgin, and Dunfermline. In 1841 he published "Scotland," a rhyming "Geography" in thirty-two pages, of which these verses are a specimen : MEARNS OR KINCARDINESHIRE. The Mearns or Kincardineshire 's And thriving woodlands, fertile fields, Stonehaven stands where Carron stream Upon a bay, and on both sides Is flanked by lofty hills. It was a royal borough made The "Angus or Forfar" part closes with this racy bit :— Close by Southesk, on an incline, And eight miles from the shore, THOMAS TURNBULL, a Forfarshire man, who was a bleacher at Newburgh, Fife, and who emigrated to New Zealand, was the author of "John Bull," a poem published in 1848; and of "The Newburgh Curlers," a short dramatic sketch, which was privately printed in 1845. DR HENRY WILLIAM TYTLER, younger brother of James Tytler, and a son of the Rev. George Tytler of Fearn, is famous as being the first Scotsman who translated the works of any Greek poet into the English language. "Callimachus" was published in 1793, and while the translator was under a cloud of mental trouble. He recovered, however, and afterwards published Padotrophia; or the Art of Nursing and Rearing Children," a translation from the Latin, in dedicating which to Lord Buchan, he writes: "With health, with ease, with sacred friendship blest, Tytler began public life as a doctor in Brechin, but afterwards went to India. On his return he published "A Voyage from the Cape of Good Hope, and other Pieces." He died at Edinburgh in 1808, aged 56. JAMES WALKER, Mains of Cowie, published at Montrose, in 1850, a volume of 140 pages, called "Effusions from the Braes of Cowie." The booklet purports to be an enlargement of and an improvement on a previous edition: the reader may judge from this extract in what line the author should be characterized :— THE COTTAR'S CHRISTMAS. (An "Effusion" of 33 stanzas; stanza 3, referring to "The Cottar.") A little further, as he passes on, His little cot appears within his sight; A mighty king, while seated on his throne, And Christmas plays, toys are shown to him by some. MRS MARGARET WALLACE, through a long residence at Coupar-Angus, as the wife of the Rev. Robert Wallace, E.U. minister there, is deserving of a short notice in this place. In 1875 she published at Coupar-Angus "Emblems of Nature," a volume of 126 pages of very good pieces, mainly in praise of Nature's beauties, and largely of a moral and religious cast. Mrs Wallace was born at Leith in 1829, and died at Glasgow in the early '80's. DAVID WATSON, a distinguished son of Brechin, was born in 1710. He was educated at St. Andrews, and became Professor of Moral Philosophy in St. Leonards College, retiring on the union of that college with St. Salvadors in 1747. Removing to London, he became an author professionally, but fell a victim to the ruling dissipation of the times. A translation of Horace, and a "History of the Heathen Gods," formerly esteemed as a class book, were among his contributions to literature. LOUIS or LEWIS WATT was the author of a booklet of thirty pages of poor matter, published by Anderson, Forfar, in 1823. Watt, who was Kirriemuir tailor, avows his unwillingness to "venture before the public with the verses his friends advised him to print," and gives a rhymed apology which is better far than anything that follows: Now on a Donkey I will ride, Instead of the Pegasus; And up to Catlaw I will stride, Instead of Mount Parnassus. WHITE, farmer, Kirkton of Then do not laugh though we should stammer, I have no spur some ca' a grammar, Clova, is credited with a curious effusion, called "Lines on the occasion of a recent Inauguration to the Degree of D.C.L.," which seems to refer to a dream of the writer's, and which concludes: And now, kind friends, before I bid adieu Where Kirktown's hamlet rises by her side: ISABELLA WHITE, Laurencekirk, published at Brechin, in 1869, a small volume of poems, entitled, "The Lovers of the Mountains." ALEXANDER WILSON (2). This now nearly-forgotten bard, who was a weaver and a bit of a character in Forfar, published, in 1821, a twenty-six page pamphlet of homely verses, of which we append a short specimen. "When from this dark region of sorrow is borne The dust ever honoured of Maule and of Hume; And widow they 've heard when affliction was nigh; WILLIAM WILSON, "the most famous of Crieff poets," as Kippen styles him in his "Traditions" of the popular Perthshire town, had a close and important connection with the literary history of Dundee. He was the conductor of the Dundee Literary Olio, a sixteen page quarto of articles and poems, published fortnightly, price 4d.; which ran into fourteen numbers, and in which many of Wilson's own productions appeared, along with those of the Dundee literary aspirants of the hour. He contributed to "Whistle Binkie," and largely to other magazines and papers; his activity being the more surprising, in that he was engaged as a cloth "lapper" during the hours of an unusually long working day. A volume of his poems was published in 1869, nine years after his death, which occurred in America, where for many years he had kept a book store and circulating library. It was Wilson's cherished intention to publish a work-part of which he had prepared-on the Poets and Poetry of Scotland, a worthy ambition which eventually was nobly carried to success by his son, General James Grant Wilson. We may add that he was born at Crieff in 1801, and that his productions appeared usually over the noms de plume "Alpin" and "Allan Grant." An example of his lyric style may not inappropriately be given here:-- When wild winds are sweeping By Bonnie Dundee, And kind hearts are weeping When fearfully toss'd On the surge of the main- Our light bark may cover, The true-hearted lover. FAREWELL! At night when thou hearest To heaven will rise. His dreams will be sweeter His shallop sweep fleeter JOHN WOOD. "The Reformer, or a Poetical Epistle to a Friend" is the title of a poem which-with "A Song," and a very long but well-written, if inflated Preface, also on Reform Principles-was published, as a booklet of thirty-two pages, at Montrose in 1819. Wood was a schoolmaster, and died at Laurencekirk in 1832, aged 40. A short quotation from "The Reformer," which is a fair effort, may be interesting: "To you, who really do admit 'Tis far from manly to give way In midst of duty's rugged sway; |