INTRODUCTION. THE way was long, the wind was cold, The Minstrel was infirm and old; His withered cheek, and tresses gray, The last of all the bards was he, No longer courted and caressed, High placed in hall, a welcome guest, He poured, to lord and lady gay, The unpremeditated lay: Old times were changed, old manners gone; A stranger filled the Stuarts' throne; The bigots of the iron time Had called his harmless art a crime. A wandering harper, scorned and poor, He passed where Newark's stately tower Looks out from Yarrow's birchen bower: The Minstrel gazed with wishful eyeNo humbler resting place was nigh. With hesitating step, at last, The embattled portal-arch he passed, Whose ponderous grate, and massy bar, Had oft rolled back the tide of war, But never closed the iron door Against the desolate and poor. * The Duchess marked his weary pace, His timid mien, and reverend face, And bade her page the menials tell, That they should tend the old man well: For she had known adversity, Though born in such a high degree; In pride of power, in beauty's bloom, Had wept o'er Monmouth's bloody tomb! When kindness had his wants supplied, And the old man was gratified, Began to rise his minstrel pride: * Anne, Duchess of Buccleuch and Monmouth, represen tative of the ancient Lords of Buccleuch, and widow of the unfortunate James, Duke of Monmouth, who was beheaded in 1685. And he began to talk anon, Of good Earl Francis*, dead and gone, And of Earl Walter †, rest him God! And how full many a tale he knew, Of the old warriors of Buccleuch ; And, would the noble Duchess deign To listen to an old man's strain, Though stiff his hand, his voice though weak, He thought even yet, the sooth to speak, He could make music to her ear. The humble boon was soon obtained; The Aged Minstrel audience gained. * Francis Scott, Earl of Buccleuch, father to the duchess. + Walter, Earl of Buccleuch, grandfather to the duchess, and a celebrated warrior. |