a boy at school, some excellent verses on the battle of Waterloo, the news of which had apparently just reached Calcutta.

As frae the tryst I did come down,

I met a chiel frae Brussels town,

Guid een, quoth I, friend, whar ye boun?
Quae tak a cup the night man.

I speer'd the news, quoth he, I've seen
As tough a fight as e'er has been,
The British and the French atween,
It was an unco sight man.

A hunder thousan Frenchmen guid,
Wi Buonaparte bauldly stood,
But sixty thousan British bluid,

Taught them the way to fight man.

The sun was up, and blinkit gay,
Or Wellington begood the fray,
But sic a rout as was that day,
He never coost a light on.

Twad tak a weary time to tell,
Wha bravely feught and bravely fell,

Ilk ane a hero shaw'd himsell

When he begood to fight man.

As a specimen of the ancient style of Caledonian song, nothing can be more classic, either as to expression or idiom