episodes which, during the inevitable changes of traditional recitation merely, became detached from the long lost romances of which they originally formed part. And it may be, says Motherwell, "That this spirit of romance was indebted to the ballads rather than the reverse." He further says:- "As society advanced in refinement, and the rudeness and simplicity of earlier ages partially disappeared, the historic ballad, like the butterfly bursting the crust of its chrysalis state, and expanding itself in winged pride under the gladdening and creative influence of warmer suns and more genial skies, became speedily transmuted into the Romance of Chivalry."

The truth, however, may lie midway; for the ballad would probably be only the first rude versitied form of the Historical Romance, while the Metrical Romance might be formed on the basis of the more ancient tradition handed down from father to son, from generation to generation.

The selection and arrangement of words into poetical rhythm, or their construction into a technical rule or measure, is so intimately associated with the science of music that their connection must have been early perceived. It would be hazardous to say which was anterior, but it matters little whether the primitive poet in reciting his productions fell naturally into a chant or song, or did the early musician adapt rude lines to a rude tune? It may be that both were to some extent contemporaneous.

The early minstrel was both poet and musician, and the two ideal arts were rendered more complete when, subsequently, the harp, lute, or any other primitive instrument was the accompaniment of the living voice.

There seem to be two chief orders of poets-those who possess the creative faculty, as Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, Goethe, and Burns; the other,

the reflective or the perceptive, as Horace, Chaucer, Allan Ramsay, Joanna Baillie, Wordsworth, Scott, and Tennyson.

Pastoral poetry is a branch of the latter, and embraces a numerous class. It is essentially descriptive of rural life and natural objects in their varied phases, animate and inanimate-full of truthfulness to nature. Of the former we have pictures of simple country life in almost endless variety, yet too often refined and artificial, thereby imparting an unnatural air of ease, elegance, and dignity to its objects. Of the latter we have descriptions of country villages, green fields, shaded alleys, valleys, mountains, and ravines, with the higher forms of landscape sublimity in ever varying and fanciful settings, and picturesque poetical limnings.

To one of keen, or even moderate sensibilities, there is formed a marked connection between the general tenor of the imagination, and the nature of the scenery daily presented to the senses. Keen sensibilities are blunted, and a lively imagination deadened, with little or no variety in the daily life, or a prolonged familiarity with dull and uninteresting scenery. On the other hand, frequent converse with a large and diversified landscape, interspersed with mountains, rocks, precipices, and cataracts, and other prominently marked objects of nature, stimulates the imagination.

By frequent contact with these, the powers of illustration and expression are enlarged, favouring those naturally meditative and susceptible, and who long for increased mental perfections and ideal possessions, so far as attainable by a picturesque cast of the imagination, thereby acquiring a greater mental vigour, and a consequent richer store of original conception in thought and expression.

Lovers of poetry must be interested by even a cursory glance over the field covered by our National

Muse. They will be pleased to listen to her early efforts after those tuneful sounds which were ultimately to enlist the sympathies and secure the plaudits of posterity. It is only, however, with the first of these-poetry-that this essay has to do.

Poetry and a love of song are indigenous to Scotchmen. Poesy and music have been national characteristics for centuries. Scotland possesses many hundreds. of songs of such exquisite beauty as to have secured a reputation co-extensive with the civilised world. These are not only abundant, but also varied; for the native mind has for centuries found instinctive utterance in lyrical strains of a simple and natural type, o'erflowing with great tenderness and ardent passion, which no age or country has ever surpassed. There can be no question that the Scottish muse has long been recognised as possessing a quaintness, originality,. grace, and tenderness peculiarly its own.

No other country or nationality can justly lay claim to such a goodly array of poets from the days of Thomas of Ercildoune, commonly called The Rhymer-the father of Scottish poetry-to those of say- John Stuart Blackie and Walter C. Smith.

It has been affirmed that during the six centuries: since the revival of literature in Scotland, the country has given birth to no less than two hundred thousand poets. Whether this be an overestimate we do not presume to say; probably it is. But it may be safely affirmed that the "land of brown heath and shaggy wood can lay claim to a greater number of poets than any other country, ancient or modern, not excepting Greece,-and our rich collection of truly popular songs are believed to be approached by few,. and surpassed by none of the peoples of the world. The poetic element, then, has been a living power in "Old Caledonia" since it was both "stern and wild,” gaining increased strength and vigour with age.

If we travel backward, as far as the ancient landmark erected by the life and work of Sir Thomas Lermonth, and his long past coadjutors, with their immemorial associations, we find that it is the earliest known era of our minstrel ballads. Whatever may

have been antecedent has been either lost, or merged into what is now represented by the fragments that have come down to us as his, (or their) work. Doubtless he has secured a lasting place among the sons of his people.

Sir Thomas Lermonth, Thomas of Ercildoune, or Thomas the Rhymer, with other Scottish poets, whose works have unfortunately perished, were famed throughout Europe for metrical romances written in their native language, that of Chaucer,* fully a century ere "The day-starre" of English poetry was born. Sir Thomas is believed to have first seen the light in the opening quarter of the thirteenth century, and lived on to its close. He is the first conspicuous poetical figure in the early literature of his country, standing at its very gateway, presumably on its most distant horizon, like some great luminary shining 'mid the twilight of the period: or, to change the figure, like a towering and majestic mountain amid the scattering haze of Highland mist.

Doubtless he was preceded by others of his craft to whom he was probably indebted, who gleam forth dimly on the waste sea of distant and shadowy time -little more than phantoms, whose influence, however, told on their more favoured and illustrious representative. No name gathers round it a richer store of early memories, alike venerable and chivalrous. It is a landmark from which may be dated the commencement of our civilization, and our national love for literature, which has ever since

* The English language, as it then existed; was common to both Scotland and England.

grown slowly, but surely, into a stately and widespreading tree, bearing richly varied and abundant fruit.

The place of the Rhymer's birth is now known as Earlston, a village near the Leader, two miles above its junction with the Tweed. Ruins, called "The Rhymer's Tower," are still to be seen, notwithstanding a lapse of six centuries. In the front wall of the Church at Earlston there is a stone with the inscription :

"Auld Rhymer's race

Lies in this place,"

And it is believed that this stone, with its modern spelling, took the place of a very ancient one, destroyed in 1782, which was in an older church that stood only a few yards from the present building.

By his talents and literary industry he has erected an imperishable memorial of his life and work. This, in conjunction with his social position, placed him on an equality with the highest and noblest of his day. His ballads o'erflow with all the energy and fire he could command, resembling a trumpet blast on the ear and heart of a true son of chivalry. Round his name and life work, as the old prophet poet of Ercildoune, there centres thus, as by th heritage of centuries, a weird glamour, rich and varied, in its quaintness of rhyme and imagery, from that remote and semi-mythical age, up to the present.

Sir Walter Scott styles him "the earliest Scottish poet," and believed that his poem of "Sir Tristrem " was composed in Scotland, and was the first classical English romance, written in that Anglo Saxon-Pictish known by the name of Inglis or English. Blind Harry represents Sir Thomas as a companion-in-arms of Sir William Wallace in 1296, while he is known to have died in 1299. The poem is written in what