some length; but he found the subject too extensive and too professional to be introduced with propriety. The difficulty of abandoning any of these narcotics (if we may so term them), when inclination is strengthened by habit, is well known. Johnson, in his distresses, had experienced the cheering but treacherous influence of wine, and, by a powerful effort, abandoned it. He was obliged, however, to use tea as a substitute, and this was the solace to which he constantly had recourse under his habitual melancholy. The praises of wine form many of the most beautiful lyrics of the poets of Greece and Rome, and of modern Europe. Whether opium, which produces visions still more ecstatic, has been the theme of the eastern poets, I do not know. Wine is drunk in small quantities at a time, in company, where, for a time, it promotes harmony and social affection. Opium is swallowed by the Asiatics in full doses at once, and the inebriate retires to the solitary indulgence of his delirious imaginations. | Hence, the wine drinker appears in a superior light to the imbiber of opium, a distinction which he owes more to the form than to the quality of his liquor. PAGE 68, NOTE 120.-Mrs. Riddel of Woodlee Park. Page 72, NOTE 121.—Take, for instance, the authors or collaters of the Delicia Poetarum Scotorum, and others. PAGE 73, NOTE 122.-Lord Kames. PAGE 74, NOTE 123.-A few Scottish ballads, attributable to the last century, have been got together in the Pepys collection, but without clue to the authorships. PAGE 74, NOTE 124.-Some strong reasons are assigned by a contributor signing himself J. Runcole, who addresses Mr. Ramsay in the second volume of The Bee, for doubting the authenticity of a great number of Scottish Songs of professedly remote antiquity, and of much celebrity. The quotation cited above, is extracted from a letter addressed by Mr. Ramsay, of Ochtertyre, to Dr. Currie, and dated Sept. 11th, 1799. PAGE 175, NOTE 25-Allan Ramsay, it is said, was employed in the capacity of a washer of ore, in the lead mines, at Lead Hills, belonging to the Earl of Hopetown. His father was, and had from his youth, also been a workman in the same mines. But it is to be remarked that the limited hours of mine-labour (only six per diem, or, according to some, only four), together with the general good character, sobriety, and intelligence of the people, and the convenience of a good library containing some thousands of volumes, in common amongst them, contributed to afford these men very superior opportunities of intellectual improvement. PAGE 75, NOTE 126.-Mr. Ramsay of Ochtertyre, writing to one of Burns's Biographers, gives the following account of Allan Ramsay: :-" He was coeval with Joseph Mitchell, and his club of small wits, who, about 1719, published a very poor miscellany, to which, Dr. Young, the author of Night Thoughts, prefixed a copy of verses." PAGE 75, NOTE 127.-The first line of this piece runs thus : "What beauties does Flora disclose!" PAGE 75, NOTE 128.-The first line or this piece runs thus :- "I have heard a lilting at our ewe's milking.” PAGE 76, NOTE 129-This Mrs. Cockburn died before the poet; that is, on the 22nd of November, 1794. PAGE 76, NOTE 130.-See the Introduction to the History of Poetry in Scotland, by T. Campbell, and an article affording a Biographical Sketch of this writer in the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica. PAGE 77, NOTE 131.-Critics and Antiquarians are equally divided on this point. Mr. Tytler has struggled very hard to establish the genuineness of authorship for this piece, whilst Sir D. Dalrymple most unaccountably attributes it to James V! Pray, Sir David, where did you discover that the fifth James was either a wit or a poet? That he was an arrant pedant is undoubtedly true. But the first James was certainly one of the best of poets whom Scotland has produced. There is ample evidence of his having fathered verses, and verses of very great merit, and of his peculiar love of music and minstrelsy. PAGE 78, NOTE 132.-This is the title of the poem selected as an instance; and being rendered into English, would mean The Farmer's Fireside. PAGE 78, NOTE 133.-Why the acute observation, and true portraiture, afforded in this surprising production, should, upon its first appearance, have struck the higher orders of society with astonishment, is readily to be understood. The circumstances and position of the poet, which effectually excluded him from ever having had an opportunity of mingling with any but the society of peasants, seemed to add the charm of inspiration, or of intuitive perception, to the accurate delineation of character, cir cumstance, &c., in the upper walks of life. But, like all true and natural philosophers, Burns saw in human nature nothing but human nature, and that same nature bearing the indelible stamp of its constitution identical and unerased, notwithstanding the small differences of condition and circumstance. The poem, therefore, is merely a testimony to the natural sagacity of the poet. PAGE 79, NOTE 134.-The poet's "Earnest Cry and Prayer to the Scottish Representatives in Parliament." PAGE 79, NOTE 135.-By a "Highland gill," is meant a gill of the native Highland beverage, namely, whisky. PAGE 79, NOTE 136.-In English, we should express these terms by the paraphrase" the middle of the street, and the footway." PAGE 79, NOTE 137.-In the piece entitled the "Brigs of Ayr." PAGE 79, NOTE 138.-As will be seen in the glossary, this term signifies a messenger. PAGE 79, NOTES 139 and 140.-The "Dungeon Clock" (or Tower Clock) and the "Wallace Tower," are the names of the steeples of Ayr. PAGE 80, NOTE 141.-This festival is still very popularly observed (or rather, was so, until the political and religious agitations had been revived of late years) in some parts of Ireland. In the remote and aboriginal districts of North Wales also, we have many instances of its constant observance. PAGE 80, NOTE 142.-For truth and exactness of pencilling, for the brightness of colour, and for the delicacy and gentleness of description, this passage is almost unrivalled. În its own melting, soft, impressive monosyllabic diction, it is inimitable. The bold descriptions of Thomson here compared with this passage, have a ruggedness, almost a harshness, which destroys all parallel; and the beautiful lines of Lord Byron, which run on a similar vein of description, are wanting in the naif, inexpressible simplicity of this passage, as for instance : ""Tis sweet to hear At midnight o'er the blue and moonlit deep The song and oar of Adria's gondolier," &c. PAGE 81, NOTE 143.-The word owrie, used as it is in this instance, may have two interpretations, or may be saddled with both constructions simultaneously. Refer also to the glossary. In general, as applied to cattle, or to domestic animals, it signifies such us are left abroad during the winter instead of being brought home to the pens, or sheds of the homestead. Added to this, the word owrie is also used in the sense of that pinched, wretched, shivering, drooping, appearance which cattle sometimes present in wet and cold weather. PAGE 81, NOTE 144.-The word silly is not here to be understood in its offensive sense. It is very commonly used by the Scotch, and occurs very frequently in the poems of Burns, as a term of affection and pity. PAGE 82, NOTE 145.-It must be borne in mind, that throughout the portraiture of the Cotter, there is an evident affectionate tracing of the character, situation, &c., of the poet's own father-an acceptation which adds much poignancy to many of its passages. PAGE 83, NOTE 146.-It is a peculiar feature of the Scottish minstrelsy that it abounds in dialogues between man and wife, To the labours of Mr. Pinkerton, in his earnest and successful pursuit of remote Scottish literary productions, we are indebted for a multiplicity of parallel passages in the songs, as well as amongst the unpolished attempts at comic dramatic writing. The salient point of these pieces, is the invariable triumph of the "better half" in the contest, in the course of which as many caustic things have been said, as may conveniently be crammed into a brief conversation. PAGE 83, NOTE 147.-The subjoined extracts may be cited as illustrations of the question. First let us detail the romance of a Scottish song of the early part of the eighteenth Century. We have a Highland lad wooing a Lowland lass to fly with him to the Highlands, and share his fare and fortune. The scene is on the banks of a most beautiful stream (Ettric banks), in the calm and stillness of a summer's evening, and the exordium of the tale runs as follows "On Ettrick banks, one summer's night At gloaming when the sheep drove hame, Come wading barefoot a' her lane: In another of these pieces we have the heroine lamenting o'er the sweet recollections of the trysting place, and raptured hour. The comparison of the love scene with the present, which quickens the vivid recollection, is most apparent in the contrast between the two subjoined stanzas: Oh! the broom,-the bonnie, bonnie broom, | The damsels of Ramsay do not walk in the The Broom of Cowden-Knowes! I wish I were with my dear Swain, With his pipe, and my ewes. PAGE 83, NOTE 148.-That the dramatic form of writing characterises the productions of an early, or, what amounts to the same thing, of a rude stage of society, may be illustrated by a reference to the most ancient compositions that we know of, the Hebrew Scriptures, and the writings of Homer. The form of dialogue is adopted in the old Scottish ballads, even in narration, whenever the situations described become interesting. This sometimes produces a very striking effect, of which an instance may be given from the ballad of Edom o' Gordon, a composition, apparently, of the sixteenth century. The story of the ballad is shortly this :-The Castle of Rhodes, in the absence of its lord, is attacked by the robber Edom o' Gordon, The lady stands on her defence, beats off the assailants, and wounds Gordon, who, in his rage, orders the castle to be set on fire. That his orders are carried into effect, we learn from the expostulation of the lady, who is represented as standing on the battlements, and remonstrating on this barbarity. She is interrupted: "Oh then bespake her little son, Sate on his nourice knee; To blaw the reek frae thee."" The circumstantiality of the Scottish lovesongs, and the dramatic form which prevails so generally in them, probably arises from their being the descendants and successors of the ancient ballads. In the beautiful modern song of Mary of Castle-Cary, the dramatic form has a very happy effect. The same may be said of Donald and Flora, and Come under my Pladdie, by the same author, Mr. Macniel. PAGE 84, NOTE 149.-Mrs. Barbauld has fallen into an error in this respect. In her prefatory address to the works of Collins, speaking of the natural objects that may be employed to give interest to the description of passion, she observes:-"They present an inexhaustible variety, from the midst of frost and snow. Almost all the scenes of the Gentle Shepherd are laid in the open air, amidst beautiful natural objects, and at the most genial season of the year. Ramsay introduces all his acts with a prefatory description to assure us of this. The fault of the climate of Britain is not, that it does not afford us the beauties of summer, but that the season of such beauties is comparatively short, and even uncertain. There are days and nights, even in the northern division of the island, which equal, or perhaps surpass, what are to be found in the latitude of Sicily, or of Greece. Buchanan, when he wrote his exquisite Ode to May, felt the charm as well as the transientness of these happy days : "Salve fugacis gloria seculi, PAGE 86, NOTE 150.-Those who, primed with the statistics of Sir John Sinclair, attribute the expatriation of the Scotch to a disproportion between the numerical aggregates of the sexes, seem to consider the number stated in round figures above, as inadequate. The latter proposition is easily granted, but the current joke against Sawney, seems to allege some more probable and prevailing cause for the spontaneous expatriation in question. He has enterprise, and requires a broader field, and above all, more ample resources; and those of his own country would be limited but for the adjunct of the sister realm. Whether, or not, the beautiful song of Burns : 'Their groves of sweet myrtle," be addressed to these wandering fellow countrymen, I am fully prepared to admit its excellence, and the probability that it will be read with as much admiration by others. PAGE 89, NOTE 151.-This was in reply to a report which had come to the ears of Dr. Currie, to the effect that a violent hurricane, which actually levelled a portion of the cottage, occurred simultaneously with the birth of Burns. PAGE 90, NOTE 152.-This was Mr. Peter Ewart, of Manchester, a friend of Dr. Currie's. PAGE 95, NOTE 153.-The household effects of Mrs. Burns were sold by public auction on the 10th and 11th of April, and from the anxiety of the public to possess relics of this interesting household, brought uncommonly high sums. According to the Dumfries Courier, "the auctioneer commenced with small articles, and when he came to a broken copper coffee-pot, there were so many bidders, that the price paid exceeded twenty-fold the intrinsic value. A tea-kettle A tea-kettle of the same metal succeeded, and reached £2 sterling. Of the linens, a table-cloth, marked 1792, which, speaking commercially, may be worth half-a-crown or five shillings, was knocked down at £5. 7s. Many other articles commanded handsome prices, and the older and plainer the furniture, the better it sold. The rusty iron top of a showerbath, which Mrs. Dunlop, of Dunlop, sent to the poet when afflicted with rheumatism, was bought by a Carlisle gentleman for £1. 8s.; and a low wooden kitchen chair, on which the late Mrs. Burns sat when nursing her children, was run up to £3.7s. The crystal and china were much coveted, and brought, in most cases, splendid prices. Even an old fender reached a figure which would go far to buy half-a-dozen new ones, and everything towards the close attracted notice, down to grey-beards, bottles, and a half-worn pair of bellows. The poet's eightday clock, made by a Mauchline artist, attracted great attention, from the circumstance that it had frequently been wound up by his own hand. In a few seconds it was bid up to fifteen pounds or guineas, and was finally disposed of for £35. The purchaser had a hard battle to fight; but his spirit was good, and his purse obviously not a light one, and the story ran that he had instructed Mr. Richardson to secure a preference at any sum under £60.” Additional Nate, RELATING TO THE BACHELOR'S CLUB, AT TARBOLTON. RULES AND REGULATIONS. 1st. THE club shall meet at Tarbolton every fourth Monday night, when a question on any subject shall be proposed, disputed points of religion only excepted, in the manner hereafter directed, which question is to be debated in the club, each member taking whatever side he thinks proper. kept by the president); then the two members nearest the president shall cast lots who of them shall speak first, and, according as the lot shall determine, the member nearest the president on that side shall deliver his opinion, and the member nearest on the other side shall reply to him; then the second member of the side that spoke first; then the second member of the side that spoke second-and so on to the end of the company; but if there be fewer members on the one side than on the other, when all the members of the least side have spoken ac 2nd. When the club is met, the president, or, he failing, some one of the members, till he come, shall take his seat; then the other members shall seat themselves; those who are for one side of the question, on the pre-cording to their places, any of them, as they sident's right hand; and those who are for the other side, on his left-which of them shall have the right hand, is to be determined by the president. The president and four of the members being present, shall have power to transact any ordinary part of the society's business. 3rd. The club met and seated, the president shall read the question out of the club's book of records (which book is always to be please among themselves, may reply to the remaining members of the opposite side; when both sides have spoken, the president shall give his opinion, after which, they may go over it a second or more times, and so continue the question. 4th. The club shall then proceed to the choice of a question for the subject of the next night's meeting. The president shall first propose one, and any other member who chooses may propose more questions, and whatever one of them is most agreeable to the majority of the members, shall be the subject of debate next club-night. 5th. The club shall, lastly, elect a new president for the next meeting; the president shall first name one, then any of the club may name another, and whoever of them has the majority of votes shall be duly elected -allowing the president the first vote, and the casting vote upon a par, but none other. Then, after a general toast to the mistresses of the club, they shall dismiss. to avoid and have no communication with him as a friend or comrade. 8th. Every member shall attend at the meetings, without he can give a proper excuse for not attending; and it is desired that every one who cannot attend, will send his excuse with some other member; and he who shall be absent three meetings, without sending such excuse, shall be summoned to the club-night, when, if he fail to appear, or send an excuse, he shall be excluded. 9th. The club shall not consist of more than sixteen members, all bachelors, belong brother-member marry, and in that case he may be continued, if the majority of the club think proper. No person shall be admitted a member of this society, without the unanimous consent of the club; and any member may withdraw from the club altogether, by giving a notice to the president in writing of his departure. 6th. There shall be no private conversa-ing to the parish of Tarbolton; except a tion carried on during the time of debate, nor shall any member interrupt another while he is speaking, under the penalty of a reprimand from the president for the first fault, doubling his share of the reckoning for the second, trebling it for the third, and so on in proportion for every other fault; provided always, however, that any member may speak at any time after leave asked and given by the president. All swearing and profane language, and particularly all obscene and indecent conversation, is strictly prohibited, under the same penalty, as aforesaid, in the first clause of this article. 7th. No member, on any pretence whatever, shall mention any of the club's affairs to any other person but a brother member, under the pain of being excluded; and, particularly, if any member shall reveal any of the speeches or affairs of the club, with a view to ridicule or laugh at any of the rest of the members, he shall be for ever excommunicated from the society; and the rest of the members are desired, as much as possible, 10th. Every man proper for a member of this society, must have a frank, honest, open heart; above any thing dirty or mean; and must be a professed lover of one or more of the female sex. No haughty, self-conceited person, who looks upon himself as superior to the rest of the club, and especially no mean-spirited, worldly mortal, whose only will is to heap up money, shall upon any pretence whatever, be admitted. In short, the proper person for this society is, a cheerful, honest-hearted lad, ful, honest-hearted lad, who, if he has a friend that is true, and a mistress that is kind, and as much wealth as genteelly to make both ends meet, is just as happy as this world can make him. |