Part 3

Yet far be it from me to croak as the "laudator temporis acti." Past, present, and future--all are divine--all are parts of a celestial scheme--none to be scorned, all to be loved and improved. But the past is under the sod; the future is behind the clouds; the present alone has its foot upon the green sward. In a higher sense than the epicure's, it is "_our own_." Let us, then, appreciate, exalt, and enjoy it. There are good and glorious signs in our present, amid much that is of earth earthy, and of self selfish. If man has become more isolated, more rigidly defined, and has been stript of most of his old pictorial haloes--he is also beginning to display a plain, honest, equal, fraternal yearning and sympathy, man to man. Our hard material age shews the buddings of a poetry of its own. Streams shall gush from the rock. If there were, in the days of loyal Clanhood, joyousness, and generous susceptibility, festive reliefs to labour, and reverence for greatness; why should not this be so even more, under the influence of common Brotherhood? "Charity never faileth!" Everything dies but charity and joy. Even in the general conflagration, these will be exhaled from earth, only to burst forth afresh in heaven--"a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God."

CONTENTS.

PAGE FRANCIS BENNOCH, 1 Truth and honour, 7 Our ship, 8 Auld Peter Macgowan, 10 The flower of Keir, 11 Constancy, 12 My bonnie wee wifie, 13 The bonnie bird, 14 Come when the dawn, 15 Good-morrow, 16 Oh, wae's my life, 17 Hey, my bonnie wee lassie, 18 Bessie, 20 Courtship, 21 Together, 22 Florence Nightingale, 23

JOSEPH MACGREGOR, 25 Laddie, oh! leave me, 25 How blythely the pipe, 26

WILLIAM DUNBAR, D.D., 28 The maid of Islay, 29

WILLIAM JERDAN, 30 The wee bird's song, 32 What makes this hour? 33

ALEXANDER BALD, 34 The lily of the vale, 35 How sweet are the blushes of morn, 35

GEORGE WILSON, 37 Mild as the morning, 37 The beacons blazed, 38 The rendezvous, 40

JOHN YOUNGER, 42 Ilka blade o' grass gets its ain drap o' dew, 43 The month of June, 44

JOHN BURTT, 46 O'er the mist-shrouded cliffs, 47 O! lassie I lo'e dearest, 47

CHARLES JAMES FINLAYSON, 49 The bard strikes his harp, 50 Ph[oe]bus, wi' gowden crest, 51 Oh, my love 's bonnie, 52

WILLIAM DOBIE, 54 The dreary reign of winter's past, 55

ROBERT HENDRY, M.D., 57 Oh, let na gang yon bonnie lassie, 58

HEW AINSLIE, 60 The hameward sang, 61 Dowie in the hint o' hairst, 62 On wi' the tartan, 63 The rover o' Lochryan, 64 The last look o' hame, 65 The lads an' the land far awa', 66 My bonnie wee Bell, 67

WILLIAM THOMSON, 68 The maiden to her reaping-hook, 68

ALEXANDER SMART, 71 When the bee has left the blossom, 73 Oh, leave me not, 74 Never despair, 75

JOHN DUNLOP, 77 The year that 's awa', 78 Oh, dinna ask me, 78 Love flies the haunts of pomp and power, 79 War, 80

WILLIAM BLAIR, 82 The Highland maid, 82 The Neapolitan war-song, 84

ARCHIBALD MACKAY, 85 Our auld Scots sangs, 85 My laddie lies low, 87 Jouk and let the jaw gae by, 88 Victorious be again, boys, 89

WILLIAM AIR FOSTER, 91 Fareweel to Scotia, 91 The falcon's flight, 92 The salmon run, 94

CHARLES MARSHALL, 97 The blessing on the wark, 98 Jewel of a lad, 99 Twilight joys, 100

WILLIAM WILSON, 102 Oh, blessing on her starlike een, 102 Oh! blessing on thee, land, 104 The faithless, 105 My soul is ever with thee, 106 Auld Johnny Graham, 107 Jean Linn, 108 Bonnie Mary, 109

MRS MARY MACARTHUR, 111 The missionary, 111

JOHN RAMSAY, 114 Farewell to Craufurdland, 114

JAMES PARKER, 116 The mariner's song, 116 Her lip is o' the rose's hue, 117

JOHN HUNTER, 119 The bower o' Clyde, 119 Mary, 122 In distant years, 123

ROBERT CHAMBERS, 124 Young Randal, 126 The ladye that I love, 127 Thou gentle and kind one, 128 Lament for the old Highland warriors, 129

THOMAS AIRD, 131 The swallow, 132 Genius, 133

ROBERT WHITE, 136 My native land, 137 A shepherd's life, 138 Her I love best, 140 The knight's return, 141 The bonnie Redesdale lassie, 143 The mountaineer's death, 144

WILLIAM CAMERON, 146 Sweet Jessie o' the dell, 146 Meet me on the gowan lea, 147 Morag's fairy glen, 148 Oh! dinna cross the burn, Willie, 150

ALEXANDER TAIT, 151 E'ening's dewy hour, 151

CHARLES FLEMING, 153 Watty M'Neil, 153

WILLIAM FERGUSON, 155 I'll tend thy bower, my bonnie May, 155 Wooing song, 156 I'm wandering wide, 158

THOMAS DICK, 160 How early I woo'd thee, 160

HUGH MILLER, 161 Sister Jeanie, haste, we 'll go, 166 Oh, softly sighs the westlin' breeze, 167

ALEXANDER MACANSH, 171 The mother and child, 172 Change, 173 The tomb of the Bruce, 174

JAMES PRINGLE, 176 The ploughman, 176

WILLIAM ANDERSON, 178 Woodland song, 180 The wells o' Weary, 181 I'm naebody noo, 182 I canna sleep, 183

WILLIAM M. HETHERINGTON, D.D., LL.D., 185 'Tis sweet wi' blythesome heart to stray, 186 Oh, sweet is the blossom, 187

THOMAS WATSON, 189 The squire o' low degree, 189

JAMES MACDONALD, 192 Bonnie Aggie Lang, 193 The pride o' the glen, 194 Mary, 196

JAMES BALLANTINE, 198 Naebody's bairn, 200 Castles in the air, 201 Ilka blade o' grass keps its ain drap o' dew, 202 Wifie, come hame, 203 The birdie sure to sing is aye the gorbel o' the nest, 204 Creep afore ye gang, 205 Ae guid turn deserves anither, 205 The nameless lassie, 206 Bonnie Bonaly, 207 Saft is the blink o' thine e'e, lassie, 208 The mair that ye work, aye the mair will ye win, 209 The widow, 209

MISS ELIZA A. H. OGILVY, 211 Craig Elachie, 212

JOHN FINLAY, 215 The noble Scottish game, 216 The merry bowling-green, 218

THOMAS TOD STODDART, 220 Angling song, 221 Let ither anglers, 222 The British oak, 223 Peace in war, 224

ALEXANDER MACLAGAN, 226 Curling song, 229 The auld meal mill, 230 The thistle, 232 The Scotch blue bell, 233 The rockin', 235 The widow, 237 The Highland plaid, 238 The flower o' Glencoe, 239

MRS JANE C. SIMPSON, 241 Gentleness, 242 He loved her for her merry eye, 244 Life and death, 245 Good-night, 246

ANDREW PARK, 248 Hurrah for the Highlands, 249 Old Scotland, I love thee! 250 Flowers of summer, 251 Home of my fathers, 252 What ails my heart? 253 Away to the Highlands, 254 I'm away, 255 There is a bonnie, blushing flower, 256 The maid of Glencoe, 257

MARION PAUL AIRD, 258 The fa' o' the leaf, 258 The auld kirkyard, 260 Far, far away, 261

WILLIAM SINCLAIR, 263 The royal Breadalbane oak, 264 Evening, 265 Mary, 266 Absence, 267 Is not the earth, 269 Oh! love the soldier's daughter dear! 270 The battle of Stirling, 272

WILLIAM MILLER, 274 Ye cowe a', 274

ALEXANDER HUME, 276 My ain dear Nell, 276 The pairtin', 278

METRICAL TRANSLATIONS FROM THE MODERN GAELIC MINSTRELSY.

PAGE

JOHN MACDONALD, D.D., 281 The missionary of St Kilda, 282

DUNCAN KENNEDY, 284 The return of peace, 285

ALLAN M'DOUGALL, 287 The song of the carline, 288

KENNETH MACKENZIE, 290 The song of the kilt, 290

JOHN CAMPBELL, 292 The storm blast, 293

JAMES M'GREGOR, D.D., 294 Light in the Highlands, 295

THE

MODERN SCOTTISH MINSTREL.

FRANCIS BENNOCH.[1]

Francis Bennoch, the son of a farmer on the property of the Duke of Buccleuch, and of a mother whose family have been tenants on the same estate for nearly two hundred years, was born at Drumcrool, in the parish of Durrisdeer, and county of Dumfries, on the 25th June 1812. At the age of sixteen, in February 1828, he arrived in London, and entered a house of business in the city. During the nine ensuing years, he assiduously pursued his avocation, and strove to make himself master of the elements and practice of trade. In 1837 he commenced on his own responsibility, and every succeeding year has advanced him in mercantile prosperity and position. Now, at the head of the firm of Bennoch, Twentyman, & Rigg, wholesale traders and manufacturers, there is no name in the city more universally respected.

In the corporate body of the city of London Mr Bennoch for some years took a prominent part as a citizen, a common councilman, and lastly as the deputy of a ward. An independent man and a reformer of abuses, he has so managed his opposition to measures, and even to men, as to win the warm approval of his own friends, and the respect of the leaders of all parties. His plans for bridging the Thames may be referred to in proof of his patriotic devotedness to improvement.

Influenced in his youth by the genius of the locality in which he was born, to which the Ayrshire Ploughman had left a legacy of immortal song, succeeded by Allan Cunningham, and a number of distinguished followers, it was not, however, till he had been two years a denizen of the metropolis that Mr Bennoch's Scottish feeling sought to vent itself in verse. The love of country is as inherent and vehement in the children of the North as in the Swiss mountaineers; wheresoever they wander from it, their hearts yearn towards the fatherland--

"Land of brown heath and shaggy wood, Land of the mountain and the flood, Land of their sires"--

with the same cherished and enduring affection which excites in the _Rans des Vaches_ so overpowering a sympathy. And the pastoral is perhaps even more replete with the poetical elements than the "stern and wild." It is amid such scenes as the Doon, the Tweed, the Teviot, the Ettrick, the Gala, and the Nith adorn, that the jaded senses are prone to seek recreation, and the spirit, tired with work or worn with cares, flees rejoicingly from the world to the repose of its first breathing and time-sweetened, boyish delights. Thus we find young Bennoch, amid the clatter of the great city, turning to the quiet of his native valley to sing the charms of the Nith, where he

"Had paidlet i' the burn, And pu'd the gowans fine."

It was in the _Dumfries Courier_ that his first poetic essay found its way to print. That journal was then edited by the veteran M'Diarmid, himself an honour to the literature of Scotland, and no mean judge of its poetry. A cheer from such a quarter was worth the winning, and our aspirant fairly won it, by the five stanzas of which the following is the last:--

"The flowers may fade upon your banks, The breckan on the brae, But, oh! the love I ha'e for thee Shall never pass away. Though age may wrinkle this smooth brow, And youth be like a dream, Still, still my voice to heaven shall rise For blessings on your stream!"

But banks and braes, and straths and streams, and woods and waves, though very dear to memory, merely come up to the painted beauties of descriptive verse. They must be warmed through

"The dearest theme That ever waked the poet's dream,"

and love must fill the vision, before the soul can soar above the delicious but inanimate charms of earth, into the glowing region of human feeling and passion.

"In peace, Love tunes the shepherd's reed; In war, he mounts the warrior's steed; In halls, in gay attire is seen; In hamlets, dances on the green. Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, And man below, and saints above: For love is heaven, and heaven is love!"

Nor was this essential inspiration wanting in the breast of the young bard. The climate of Caledonia is cold, but that the hearts of her sons are susceptible of tropic warmth is shewn by a large proportion of her lyric treasures. Heroism, pathos, satire, and a peculiar quaint humour, present little more than an equal division, and the attributes of the wholly embodied Scottish muse attest the truth of the remark on the characteristic heat and fire which pervade her population, and excite them to daring in war and ardour in gentler pursuits. Thus Bennoch sung his Mary, Jessie, Bessie, Isabel, and other belles, but above all his Margaret:--

"The moon is shining, Margaret, Serenely bright above, And, like my dearest Margaret, Her every look is love! The trees are waving, Margaret, And balmy is the air, Where flowers are breathing, Margaret, Come, let us wander there.

* * * * *

Yes! there 's a hand, dear Margaret, A heart it gives to thee; When heaven is false, my Margaret, Then I may faithless be."

In the volume whence the preceding quotations are taken (second edition, 1843), the principal poem is "The Storm," in which occur many passages of singular vigour, and slighter touches of genuine poetry. Thus--

"The sea, by day so smooth and bright, Is far more lovely seen by night, When o'er old Ocean's wrinkled brow, The night has hung her silver bow, And stars in myriads ope their eyes To guide the footsteps of the wise, And in the deep reflected lie, Till Ocean seems a second sky; And ships, like wing'd aerial cars, Are voyaging among the stars."

This is--

"Ere winter comes with icy chain, And clanks his fetters o'er the ground."