poem. The one here given, by MAYNE (b. in Scotland, 1759, d. 1836), is metrically the most perfect. It was published by Scott, in the "Edinburgh Annual Register" for 1815, who says: "A lady of the name of Helen Irving, or Bell (for this is disputed by the two clans), daughter of the laird of Kirkconnel, in Dumfriesshire, and celebrated for her beauty, was beloved by two gentlemen in the neighborhood. The name of the favored suitor was Adam Fleming of Kirkpatrick; that of the other has escaped tradition, although it has been alleged that he was a Bell of Blacket House. The addresses of the latter were, however, favored by the friends of the lady, and the lovers were therefore obliged to meet in secret, and by night, in the church-yard of Kirkconnel, a romantic spot surrounded by the river Kirtle. During one of these private interviews, the jealous and despised lover suddenly appeared on the opposite bank of the stream, and leveled his carabine at the breast of his rival. Helen threw herself before her lover, received in her bosom the bullet, and died in his arms. A desperate and mortal combat ensued between Fleming and the murderer, in which the latter was cut to pieces. Other accounts say that Fleming pursued his enemy to Spain, and slew him in the streets of Madrid." These events occurred in the reign of Mary Queen of Scots.

Connel and Flora. Page 94. WILSON (b. in Scotland, 1766, d. in Philadelphia, 1813) wrote several poems, but was only famous as an ornithologist.

The Soldier. Page 95.

SMYTH (b. 1766, d. 1849) was an Englishman.

The Beggar. Page 96. Moss (d. 1808) was an English clergyman. He published anonymously in 1769 a small volume of poems, of which this one alone has survived.

The Orphan Boy. Page 97. Mrs. OPIE (b. 1769, d. 1853) was the wife of a portrait painter of considerable celebrity. She was better known for her novels and tales than for her poems.

Night. Page 99. WHITE was born in Spain in 1775, and died in England in 1841. Coleridge considered this sonnet one of the finest in the language.

The Tears I Shed. Page 99. HELEN D'ARCY CRANSTOUN (b. in Scotland, 1765, d. 1838) became in 1790 the second wife of Prof. Dugald Stewart. The first four lines of the last stanza were inserted by Burns.

To an Indian Gold Coin. Page 100. LEYDEN (b. in Scotland, 1775) went to India as a surgeon in 1803, and died in 1811, of a malignant fever which he caught while searching the town library of Batavia, in the island of Java, for Indian manuscripts.

A Visit from St. Nicholas. Page 102. MOORE (b. in New York, 1779 d. in Newport, R. I., 1863) was a professor in the Protestant Episcopal Seminary in New York, and published a volume of poems in 1844.

The Star Spangled Banner. Page 103. KEY (b. in Maryland, 1779, d.

1843) began writing this song while he witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry, near Baltimore, by the British in 1814. A collection of his poems was published in 1857.

Lucy's Flittin'. Page 105. WILLIAM LAIDLAW (b. in Scotland, 1780, d. 1845) was the amanuensis and confidential friend of Sir Walter Scott. "Lucy's Flittin'" was contributed to Hogg's "Forest Minstrel," and Hogg himself wrote the closing stanza.

A Litany for Doneraile. Page 106. O'KELLY published two volumes of poems in Dublin (1808 and 1812), the former of which contained this famous litany. When Lady Doneraile read it, she sent the poet a splendid gold watch, "with chain and seal," whereupon he wrote a palinode, calling down all sorts of blessings on Doneraile. When he was introduced to Scott, at Limerick in 1825, he got off, as impromptu, the following parody on Dryden's epigram:

A Riddle.

Three poets, of three different nations born,
The United Kingdom in this age adorn:
Byron of England; Scott of Scotia's blood;
And Erin's pride, O'Kelly, great and good.

Page 109. This enigma has been frequently attributed to Lord Byron, and printed in two or three editions of his works. The answer is, the letter H. Miss FANSHAWE was a contemporary of Byron's.

The Philosopher's Scales.

Page 109. Miss TAYLOR (b. in England 1783, d. 1824) was a sister of Isaac and Jeffreys Taylor.

A Modest Wit. Page 111. OSBORN (b. in Trumbull, Conn., 1783, d. in Philadelphia, 1826) was editor of various newspapers, in Connecticut, Vermont, and Delaware, and published a small volume of poems in Boston in 1823.

Saint Patrick. Page 113. According to Croker, this ballad was composed by HENRY BENNETT and a Mr. TOLLEKEN, of Cork, who sang it in alternate lines at a masquerade in that city in the winter of 1814-15. They at first made only the first, second, and fifth stanzas; after it had become popular, Tolleken added the sixth at the request of Webb the comedian. The third and fourth are the work of some other hand.

The Cloud. Page 114. CHRISTOPHER NORTH (b. in Scotland, 1785, d. 1854) wrote an abundance of poems, long and short, but this sonnet seems to be the only one that anybody now cares to read.

The Bucket. Page 115. WOODWORTH (b. in Massachusetts, 1785, d. 1842) produced this poem by some happy accident. His other verses are scarcely more than doggerel.

The Soul's Defiance. Page 116. LAVINIA STODDARD was born in Guil ford, Conn., in 1787, and died in 1820.

The Mitherless Bairn. Page 117. THOм (b. in Scotland, 1789, d. 1848) was a weaver, and became a peddler, flute-player, and wandering poet. Speaking to a friend of this poem, he said, "When I was living in Aber

deen, I was limping roun' the house to my garret, when I heard the greetin' o' a wean. A lassie was thumpin' a bairn, when out cam a big dame bellowin' 'Ye hussie, will ye lick a mitherless bairn?' I hobbled up the stair, and wrote the sang afore sleepin'."

Stanzas. Page 118. WILDE (b. in Ireland, 1789, d. in New Orleans, 1847) came to this country with his parents when he was a small boy. He was a lawyer, and served several terms in Congress. These stanzas, which were intended to be part of a long poem, are supposed to be sung by a European held captive among the savages of Florida.

Afar in the Desert. Page 119. PRINGLE (b. in Scotland, 1788, d. 1834) spent several years in South Africa.

The Beacon. Page 122. This little poem has been persistently attributed to Moore. JAMES was a banker of Manchester, England, and was an uncle of the present Bishop of Lincoln. He first published this poem in 1810, and included it in his collected poems (1853). He died in 1854.

Mortality. Page 122. This poem owes its popularity to the fact that it was a favorite with President Lincoln, who found it in a newspaper and inquired in vain for the authorship. KNOX was born in Scotland in 1789, and died in 1825. The poem in its wanderings has become very much corrupted. I have here printed it exactly as it stands in Knox's "Songs of Israel" (1824).

The Whistler. Page 124. STORY was born in Scotland in 1790, and died in 1859.

We'll go to Sea no More. Page 125. Miss Mitford quotes this poem in her "Recollections," but does not mention Miss CORBETT'S Christian name, or give any information about her; and I have sought it in vain elsewhere.

Geehale. Page 127. SCHOOLCRAFT (b. near Albany, 1793, d. 1864) married the granddaughter of an Indian chief, and became famous for his researches and publications concerning the red race.

I would not Live Alway. Page 128. DR. MUHLENBERG (b. in Philadel phia, 1796, d. 1877) made several revisions of his famous poem. The versions in the hymn-books contain some striking lines that do not appear in his final revision, which is here presented.

Lines Written in a Church-yard. Page 130. KNOWLES (b. in England, 1798, d. 1817) wrote this poem, at the age of eighteen, in the church-yard of Richmond, Yorkshire.

The Mariner's Dream. Page 131. DIMOND (b. in England, 1800, d. 1837) was a theatrical manager.

Old Grimes. Page 133. GREENE was a lawyer in Providence, R. I. where he was born in 1802, and died in Cleveland in 1868. He is said to have written this poem at the age of fifteen.

The Closing Year. Page 135. PRENTICE was born in Connecticut in 1802, and died in Louisville, Ky., in 1870.

A Health. Page 138. PINKNEY (b. in London while his father was U. S. Commissioner to England, 1802, d. in Baltimore, 1828) wrote a few other poems which deserve to be generally known, but are not. They may be found in Morris and Willis's "Mirror Library,' at the end of the book

The Three Sons. Page 139. MOULTRIE, (b. in England, 1800, d. 1874), was a schoolmate of Praed's and Macaulay's at Eton, became a clergyman, and was Rector of Rugby. He published this poem in 1839.

The Annuity. Page 142. OUTRAM (b. in Scotland, 1805, d. 1856) was a lawyer and journalist, and printed privately a small volume of humorous verses, entitled "Legal Lyrics.'

The Forging of the Anchor. Page 146. FERGUSON (b. in Belfast, 1805; d. in 1886) was a lawyer. He published two volumes of poetry.

The Bells of Shandon. Page 149. MAHONY ("Father Prout," b. in Cork about 1805, d. 1866) first published this poem in Fraser's Magazine, of which he was an editor, in 1834. The bells referred to are the chime in the high steeple of St. Anne, or Upper Shandon, which is in plain view from Cork.

The Death of Napoleon. Page 151. MCLELLAN (b. in Portland, Me., about 1805) has been a lawyer and a farmer, and has published three volumes of poetry. He resides on Shelter Island, east of Long Island.

The Grave of Bonaparte. Page 152. I have not been able to learn anything concerning the author of this poem.

Widow Malone. Page 153. LEVER, the novelist, was born in Dublin in 1806, and died in 1872.

Lament of the Irish Emigrant. Page 155. HELEN SELINA SHERIDAN (b. in Ireland, 1807, d. 1867) married the Hon. Price Blackwood in 1825. He became fourth Baron DUFFERIN, and died in 1841. In 1862 she married her old friend Earl Gifford. She was Mrs. Norton's sister.

The Happy Land. Page 157. YOUNG (b. about 1805) is a native and resident of Edinburgh, Scotland, where he was for many years a teacher. Gluggity Glug. Page 158. GEORGE COLMAN the Younger (b. in England, 1762, d. 1836) was a dramatist and theatrical manager.

Here she Goes-and There she Goes. Page 158. NACK (b. in New York, 1809, d. 1879) became deaf by accident when he was a boy. His poems were published in 1859, with a memoir by George P. Morris.

She Died in Beauty. Page 163. SILLERY (b. in Ireland, 1807, d. in Edinburgh, 1836) studied medicine, and published two or three small vol umes of poetry.

The New Tale of a Tub. Page 164. BAYLEY (b. in England, 1807, d. 1852) was the first editor of the London Illustrated News.

The Old Sexton. Page 175. BENJAMIN (b. in Demerara, British Guiana, 1809, d. in New York, 1864) was a journalist and lecturer. His writings have never been collected.

The Private of the Buffs. Page 176. DOYLE (b. in England, 1810; d. in 1888) was Professor of Poetry at Oxford in 1867-77. The poem is explained by an extract from a China letter to the London Times: "Some Seiks, and a private of the Buffs, having remained behind with the grog-carts, fell into the hands of the Chinese. On the next day they were brought before the authorities and ordered to perform kotow. The Seiks obeyed; but Moyse, the English soldier, declared he would not prostrate himself before any Chinaman alive, and was immediately knocked upon the head, and his body thrown upon a dunghill."

Light. Page 177. PALMER (b. in Stockbridge, Mass., 1805; d. in 1884) was an insurance officer in New York City.

A Death-Bed. Page 179. ALDRICH (b. in Sullivan Co., N. Y., 1810; d 1856) was at first a merchant, and afterward a magazine editor. This poem owes a great part of its fame to the fact that Poe pointed out the remarkable resemblance between it and one by Hood with an almost identical title.

A Christmas Hymn. Page 180. DOMETT (b. in England, 1811; d. in 1886) published this poem in Blackwood's in 1837. He was educated at Cambridge, and wandered about the world in a most remarkable manner. For some time he was Colonial Secretary in New Zealand. A few years ago he re-appeared in London, and published two volumes of poetry. He is understood to be the hero of Robert Browning's poem "Waring."

The Ivy Green. Page 181. DICKENS (b. 1812, d. 1870) published this poem as a song in the "Pickwick Papers."

The Polish Boy. Page 182. Mrs. STEPHENS (née WINTERBOTHAM, b. Derby, Conn., 1813; d. in 1886), besides her many novels, wrote occasional poems, but never collected them into a volume.

Balaklava. Page 186. MEEK (b. in Columbia, S. C., 1814, d. in Georgia, 1865) was a lawyer and journalist. He published a volume of poems in Mobile in 1857.

The Pauper's Drive. Page 189. NOEL, an English country gentleman residing near Windsor, published in 1841 a volume of poems, which included this one.

Florence Vane. Page 190. COOKE (b. in Martinsburg, Va., 1816, d. 1850) was a lawyer, and published a volume of poems in 1847.

The Dule's i' this Bonnet o' Mine. Page 191. WAUGH (b. in England, 1818) has published several small volumes of poems in the Lancashire dialect.

Abraham Lincoln. Page 193. TAYLOR (b. in England, 1817, d. 1880) wrote or adapted numerous plays, and published a few fugitive poems.