animal back to its stance, adding a ful”—and so she proceeded to prepare piece of wheat bread to its pittance of supper, glad to be the means of placcorn, and then slowly returned and ing horns reeking with delicious soup resumed his seat. All this passed in in her companion's hands, instead of a few moment's space.

I had seen

cold and merciless steel. Two loaded blood heated, and blood spilt at fairs, panniers were placed on the floor, a at trystes, and even at hill preachings, cloth was spread over them—of its but I had never witnessed mortal whiteness I have little to say—and a weapons drawn in mortal wrath before; sheaf of horn spoons was thrown down and I began to look around for some loose on this simple supper board. edge tool to defend myself during the The clatter of these instruments of general strife which I saw approach- good cheer was the signal for supper, ing. But the moment the chieftain and instantly from all parts of the cocked his pistol, a signal, I under- house came man and woman, and stood afterwards, that he was deeply squatted down as they arrived around incensed, and resolved to punish, the the table. From a cauldron that had men who fronted each other in des- sometime simmered on the fire, the perate and deadly opposition, and all damsel came charged, in succession, those who were preparing to second with two capacious basins turned out them, recoiled and dropt their wea- of the solid bole of a plane tree, and pons, and stood silent and dark, wait- hooped with bands of copper-she ing to see on whom the storm would placed them on the board, and the saburst. The old man, however, sing. voury steam of hares, and hens, and led out no one for punishment either onions, ascended thick and luscious, by eye or by word, but, seated in his and eddyed round our heads. A cake pannier, resumed his labour at the of meal, brown and thick, and bearing harvest-horn, with an unruffled com- the knuckle marks of the maiden who posure worthy of a saint. All the brought it, was placed beside each per, others, weary of the monotony of op- son, the spoons were snatched up, and position and strife, resumed their em- all seemed to await the signal to comployments the chieftain began to mencemgrace, I dare not presume to croon, or sing in an under tone,

a gyp- call it~from the lips of the chieftain sey ballad of ancient adventure-the-whatever the old man's wishes were Galwegian tinker, imitating the ex- - he was forestalled by the impatient ample of the chief, ranted out some Galwegean of the lineage of the Macstray verses, which required the puri- grabs, who, plunging his spoon into fying pen of those who make family one of the basins, sang out, Fieldings, and family Shakspeares, and horns a piece and hae done we't,” and the hammer of the hero of the Dub o' instantly the spoons passed from the Dryfe produced, from the bottom of an dish to the lip, and from the lip to the old cauldron, a corresponding clamour, dish, with a rapidity I had never seen for he was much too angry for song. equalled. The soup, thick and brown,

Peace having resumed her reign and delicious, and thickened with once more in the unfinished mansion fowls both wild nd tame and other of the Laird of Collieson, the gypsie choice things, began to vanish before damsel, Katherine Marshall, walked the application of the guests. The slowly away to her place of repose, damsel, who had seated herself beside shrouding her beauties as she went in me, and furnished my hand with a the Sanquhar mantle. “ Damsel," said good implement of green horn, invited the chieftain, stopping her, “hast thou me, by many a kind look, to prove the ought on spit, in cauldron, in bottle merits of her cookery. This I peror in basket, to comfort this cannie formed with a good will, and a celeriyouth with—he has heen leaping on ty almost rivalling the proverbial the top of the Lagg hill for three lang prowess of Hughie Hiddlestane, who nights and a day, holding his two supped the parridge of three mowers, hands to the cauld moon, with deel to show he had no ill will to the soupit atween his lips, save the fiz- house. My ability at the spoon was zenless verse of a sang.” Willingly, welcomed in the kindest manner, and and with a smile that came direct from the chieftain said, in his softest tone, the heart, the maiden turned back, “ Fair fall ye, lad-ye're a red-hand. and said " It is nigh the supper chield-slow to meat and slow hour, and the strange lad will like wark-ye'll either make a good si' company—a single spoon is aye laithu. or spill a fair horn.”

6 Ram

As soon as we had emptied the nae better weapon in his hands than basins of their savoury contents, the the jail-door, (it had once been a hardamsel removed them, and in their row,) whilk he reft frae the bands, and place produced a large jar full of cleared his way through the seven smuggled brandy. Drinking cups corporations of King Bruce's borough. made of horn, both deep and wide, ac- He was a rough unsonsie chield, and companied it, and the guests proceed- lost his life through the fault of ed to replenish and empty them with strang hemp, when he was but twenty the regularity and rapidity of platoon years auld and twa. But where was firing. The gloom and wrath which there a man like our ain Tam Marwere visible on the brows of the Gal- shall, known in his own sangs by the wegean, the man of Dryfe Dubs, and name of Galloway Tam, who had sic the fiery cousin of Kate Marshall, be a cunning hand that he stole the gan to brighten up, smiles were suc- purse of Serjeant Macraw from his ceeded by opener mirth—mirth by very belt, as he paid him for a new laughter, loud, and long, and boister- snuff-mull, and a for a wager o'twall

The names of the ancient heroes pennysmand, by my fay, he had a and heroines of the clan were toasted, hand as strang as it was cunning, for and the toasts were accompanied by he fought the het-blooded Highlandbrief notices and allusions to their er wi' a crabtree stick against cauld characters and their achievements.- steel for a round sound hour, and The chieftain, hoary and furrowed, then gae him back his purse to mend and his might subdued by the force his sair banes.” “ Ah, grandfather," of eighty years and odd, sat up erect, said Kate Marshall, “ my uncle was and joyous as the glories of ancient the pride o' ancient Galloway. Come times arose to his recollection. The pared with him, what are those handlight of youth came back to his faded less and heartless coofs that carry on eyes in fitful and broken gleams.- the calling now-reavers of auld wives si Ah ! lads,” said he, with a tone of haddins, and robbers of hen-roosts.sorrowful reflection, and conscious that And yet thae sackless sinners sigh for he was fallen on evil days and among the hand o strang Tam Marshall's

“ the times are sadly niece-of a' the miseries and dools changed—and man, once stately and that women are doomed to dree, that stark, is now stunted and feckless of bearing bairns to a gomeril is the where is the fallow now like black saddest and the sairest.” " And what Jamie Macall, the game cock of Glen- serves all this sighing about auld mannah, who threw a fat wether o'er times," said the descendant of the the West Bow Port of Edinburgh, on Macgrabs of Galloway, “ the days are a wager of a plack with a porter.' gane when a stark chap, with a drawn “ And sad and sair he rued it,” said sword, bought pleasure and wealthKate Marshall, “ the deed was done the hempen might of civil law lies in anger, and the poor creature bleated stretched over the land, and deel soupit as it flew owre the wall, thirty feet it is else but a desperate foumart trap high and three, and Jamie said he ,-a cursed gird-an-girns to grip all heard the bleat o' the waefu brute in kinds of spulziers-slight maun to do, his lug as he lay on his death-bed !" for might canna do, sae said Tam “ Then there was Jock Johnstone,' Marshall, wight as he was, and sae said the chieftain, heedless of his say I—and talking o' gallant Tam, grand-daughter's illustrations, “ Rab's I might do waur than gie ye ane of Jock of the Donkeydubs of Lochma- his sangs—he had a soul to make, and ben, kenned far and near by the name a sweet voice to sing-sangs that shall of double-ribbed Jock, who fought his live while heads wear horns, and that's way

iron stanchells, with a right bauld boast. The audience seemed as prepared to listen as the Galwegean was to sing, and he accordingly delivered, in a kind of rough and careless chant, the following rude verses :

1 My love shall neither sigh nor sab

When the linns o' Clouden have ceased to While men wear gold, and steel can stab, While moor-cocks, crow-birds, live i' the The glen to grien for the gorlines gore, wood,

little men,

a

from among

2

3 The moor-hen swears by her rough legs, When the bare has might to break my mesh, She scorns the carle and his corn bags; The feathers to flee wi' the dead birds flesh, She's fatter far on the heather top,

And the deer to bound o'er bank and river Than the can kered carle on fold and crop. Wi' an ounce o' lead i' th’ lapp o' his liver. Let the hen beware of the foxes tooth- Then may I dread that want and woe The carle of blight, and blast, and drowth ; Will crack my might, and crush me low; But holm and hill, and moor and tree, Come maiden bonny, and frank, and free, Have crop, and flock, and fruit for me. Leave father and mother, and follow me.

a

men

The Galwegean ceased, and applauses Marshall made sangs of a safter sortprolonged, and almost rivalling in he had a tender heart at times—it discordance the mixed greeting of the aye grew hardened by the Candleowl and raven, when the fox glides mas fair o' Dumfries—whan under their secure roosts, followed rade hame with dizzy heads and the traditional ballad of the tribe. heavy purses. Kate Marshall, my “May I be ridden by the reeket winsome lass, e'en sing me thy uncle's deil round the roons o Galloway, sang that he made for poor Chrissaid the descendant of the Macgrabs, tian Kennedy o' Cummertrees, whan “ without saddle or sonks, if lady's the salt sea swallowed up the father fingers ever touched stented thairm to o' her lad bairn.” The gay look a better sang than that. I should of the gypsey maiden saddened as like to see the lad that said no till’t--" the old man spoke, and she sung, “ Its a ballad o' bauld bearing doubt- with a voice exceedingly pathetic and less," said the chieftain, “and brags sweet, some verses which I have never of hership and bodily harm. Tam forgotten.

CHRISTIAN KENNEDY's song.

1

3 The lea shall have its lily bells,

All night I woo the tender stars, The tree its bud and blossom,

With eyes upturned and mourning, But when shall I have my leal love

And every morn look to the sea, Hame frae the faithless ocean.

For my leal love returning. 2

4 Sair, sair I pled, and followed him

Oh sweetly sweet would be the sleep, With weeping and with wailing;

That knows no dream or waking, He broke his vow, and broke my heart, And lang and green may the grass grow And sighed, and went a sailing.

Aboon a heart that's breaking. “ Sweet be your tongue, my sonsie poncrapin's numerous roosts—see if lass," said the man of Galloway;"I the carse pool keeps a salmon with shouldna scunner at a bed aneath the a fat mergh-fin-seek for a hare in billows myself-providing I could be the hedge, and a moorhen on the drowned within sight ở Tongland, hill--and, aboon a', pluck some ripe my native place-to have sae saft plumbs and apples for my fair and and tender à voice to warble aboon kind cousin Kate-We maun me-Faith, I count it nae uncomfort- singing and rin.” able thing to have a sweet sang sung Instant preparation was made for by cherry lips about ane whan their this excursion, and I had no doubt head's happit.”- '-" And what voice that the laird and the captain would shall sing owre thee,” said the iron mourn o'er their diminished flocks in man of Dryfe, who had no sympathy the morning, and plan an expedition for the fame of song after the turf with hound and horn, against the had opened and closed upon him- foxes of Dalswinton wood and Queens“ The hooded crow shall have its berry mountain. The alert Macgrab, sunket off yere brisket bane some and the cousin of bonny Kate, stood mornin, and ye winna hear its croak- ready awaiting the signal to march dom me, if ye will"

66 It's now

from the chieftain, but the desperado near ane o'clock," said Kate Marshall's from the Dub of Drufe shewed evicousin ;

“ and we maun count the dent reluctance to prepare, and seemsheep on Cursan Collieson's hill-side- ed contending with some strong internumber the fat hens on Captain Ca- nal feeling. He put his omotions in

cease

a

words: By the

spur

oʻthe John- if I disna.” The gypsey maiden stones,” said he," and its a winged looked on the Drysdale suppliant with ane, if the sough of Christian Kenne- mingled pity and scorn ;-but her dy's sang is no ringing in baith my grandfather said : “ Sing him a sang, lugs, like the wether’s bleat i' the lug Katherine, my dow; its a sad thing o'black Jamie o' Glenmannah. De’il to have the sough of a dirge in ane's hae me if I'se owre prood ot. Kate, ear,-it never comes but dole and sormy winsome kimmer, hae ye nae sang

row follow-dinna let him gang to -some kissing kind ane, to drive this his doom, may be, uncheered, if your wail o' dool and sorrow out of my tongue can charm him.” To her lug. Conscience, if ye'll sing me ane, grandfather's request the maiden comI'se bribe your lips with a pocket-full plied, and sung, with an easy and arch o'the sweetest plumbs that ever hung grace, the ballad I shall try to repeat under a green leaf to the sun, d-nme

to you.

THE GYPSET'S SONG.

done ;

1.

5. O, haste ye, and come to our gate en', Her hair in hanks gowden thread And solder the stroup o' my lady's pan : O'er her milky shoulders was loosely spread ; My lord's away to hunt the doe,

And her bonnie blue e'en blinked love below, Quo' the winsome lass o' Gallowa'.

My winsome lass o' Gallowa'. 2.

6. I ha'e a pan o' my ain to clout,

I took her by the jimpy waist ; Before I can solder your lady's stroup;

And her lips stood tempting to be kist; And ye maun bide, my mettle to blaw,

But whether I kiss'd them well or no, My winsome lass o' Gallowa'.

Ye may ask the lass o' Gallowa'. 3.

7. Now, wad ye but leave your gay lady,

Now quat the grip, thou gypsey loon. And carry the tinkling tools wi' me;

Thou hast touzelld me till my breath is And lie on kilns, on clean ait straw, My winsome lass o' Gallowa.”

And my lady will fret frae bower to ha',

Quo' the winsome lass o' Gallowa'. 4.

8. The fingers that starch my lady's frills Never could carry your tinkling tools;

Ye've coupit the soldering-pan, my lass, Ye're pans wad grime my neck of snaw,

And ye have scaled my clinks o' brass ; Quo' the winsome lass o Gallowa'.

And my gude spoon caams ye've split in twa,

My winsome lass o' Gallowa'.
During the

gypsey
maiden's

song, the wark !” he half shouted, sky, which before had become cloudy wark! when mankind are humbled and overcast, darkened down to earth we maun work,-a praying eye is

aye at once; thunder was heard nearer steeked ;-a dunt o' thunder and a flaff and nearer, and the crooked fires came o' fire are just the tongue and the light flashing rapid and bright among the to make our trade thrive ;-mind, the green branches of the forest. The fattest ewe has the fairest fleece; and applause which succeeded her song the best hen sits at the wing o' the was sobered down by the presence of cock ;-prime matters to remember.the tempest ;-I was busy with inter. Rin, rin while the light shines.”nal prayer;—the old man alone seemed And away started the gypsey marauunawed, -he snatched up the unfinish- ders, leaving me alone with the hoary ed harvest-horn that lay at his feet, and conductor of this roving horde, and gave one brief blast: “ Bairns, to his hopeful grand-daughter.

;

co bairns to

LETTER, FROM A PROPRIETOR OF ST ANDREW'8-8QUARE, RELATIVE TO THE

PROPOSED MONUMENT FOR LORD MELVILLE. MR EDITOR, I AM one of those Proprietors of St Committee on 6th March last. Even Andrew's-square who have been frem after that, I merely considered it as a quently alluded to of late in your Ma- piece of neglect in point of etiquette ; gazine, as well as in certain other pub- for I had reason to know that the sea lications, as having been the means of cretary to the Naval Committee had preventing the Naval Monument, in constantly had access to the whole of honour of the memory of the late Lord our minutes ; nor was it till I read the Melville, from being erected in that letter from “ One of the Committee,” which, I agree with you in thinking, is that I came to be "satisfied that this the best situation for it, either within omission had been of more importor in the neighbourhood of this city. ance than I had previously imagined. I have not the least intention of en- I cannot persuade myself that the netering into any discussion on the sub- gotiation would ever have been broken ject, nor do I think it would be rea- off, had the Naval Committee been as sonable to request of you to admit any well informed of our proceedings as additional arguments, either on the we were with regard to theirs, nor one side or the other, relative to a that they would have neglected as matter which has already occupied ful- they did a communication which was ly enough of your valuable Miscellany. made to them by “ a learned gentle. At the same time, I must confess, that many shortly before they adopted

, I am anxious that such gentlemen as their last resolution, (unless, indeed, may choose to favour the public with they considered themselves bound by their speculations, should be fully ac- their agreement with Sir Patrick quainted with the facts of the case be- Walker, had they known, that it fore they begin to reason upon the sub- was not with any proprietor of the ject; and the more so, that, from the square that any change of measures language employed by a gallant member originated, and, that after they themof the Naval Committee, whose letter selves had agreed upon an ultimaappeared in the last Number of your tum, point after point was Magazine, and from certain other cir- ceded by the proprietors, with po cumstances which have recently come other view than that of consulting the to my knowledge, I am fully convinced, feelings and desires of the Naval that, however strange it may appear, Committee, before any one of the the Committee are at this moment in a members of the square ever thought of state of considerable ignorance of the protesting against the erection of the history and progress of their negotiation pillar. with the proprietors of St Andrew's- As I said before, I have no intensquare. I am aware that, in point of tion of arguing the matter ; but trustfact, no official answer was transmitted ing that you will agree with me in by the proprietors of the Square to the thinking, that in fairness and justice last communication of the Naval Com- to all parties concerned, the facts of mittee. This was doubtless a great the case ought to be known to the omission on the part of the gentlemen public, I hope you will have the who ought to have returned such an- kindness to indulge me with inserting

From not having been a mem- the following extracts from the miber of the last Committee appointed nutes of the proprietors of the square, by the proprietors, I am not personal- to which I will annex no farther exly responsible for the neglect, and the planation than seems to me to be netruth is, that I was not aware of it till cessary to render them intelligible to after I had read the “ General Report," such persons as did not hear the verbwhich was published by the Naval al statements by which they were ac

con

swer.

I hope there are none of us who are incapable of acknowledging and endeavouring to repair any error which we may happen to commit, but this gentleman was mistaken in saying that two of the proprietors might be induced to withdraw their objections, and your correspondent in the Number for February, who said they had made the amende honourable, was also wrong, and both for the same reason, that those proprietors had expressly consented to terms more favourable to the Naval Committee, than they themselves had signified their satisfaction with, before the negotiation was broken off.