lady, and before either of them quit the scene of their first and only meeting, he celebrated her in the lively and pretty measure, which has been so often sung :

BLYTHE, BLYTHE, AND MERRY WAS SHE.

Blythe, blythe, and merry was she,

Blythe was she but and ben:

Blythe by the banks of Earn,

And blythe in Glenturit glen.

By Ochtertyre grows the aik,

On Yarrow banks the birken shaw;

But Phemie was a bonnier lass

Than braes o' Yarrow ever saw.

Blythe, etc.

Her looks were like a flower in May,
Her smile was like a simmer morn ;

She tripped by the banks of Earn
As light's a bird upon a thorn.
Blythe, etc.

Her bonnie face it was as meek
As onie lamb upon a lee;

The evening sun was ne'er sae sweet
As was the blink o' Phemie's e'e.

Blythe, etc.

The Highland hills I've wander'd wide,
And o'er the Lowlands I hae been ;

But Phemie was the blythest lass
That ever trode the dewy green.
Blythe, etc.

Composed to suit the old air of " Andro' and his Cutty Gun," the lyric, embracing a rapturous portrait set in the most graceful of sylvan images, forms a splendid compliment to "The Flower of Strathmore." The Rev. George

Gilfillan tells how a tradition of the House of Ochtertyre avers that it was after Burns returned from a solitary forenoon's walk to Loch Turrit-where, as everybody knows, he wrote the characteristic lines "On Scaring Some Waterfowl "-that he felt exhausted by the journey, which was long, rough, and uphill, and went into the butler's room, where he asked for a glass of whisky, and wrote the song. This may be true or not, and no matter; but it is backdoor tittle-tattle at the best, and should be accepted with the reserve due to all such gossip. For myself, I must say that I utterly discredit the story. It was surely not likely that the honoured guest of Sir William Murray would at any hour of the day require to sneak into the butler's room to secure a refreshment; and Robert Burns, who was never ashamed of his dram, was of all guests the least likely to do so.

Be that as it may, it is of more general interest to know that the fair and "blythe" subject of the song in 1794 became the wife of the Hon. David Smythe of Methven, one of the Judges of the Court of Session, the main branch of whose family tree finds its present-day representative in the popular occupant of Methven Castle.

Mr. P. R. Drummond, the historian of Perthshire in Bygone Days, tells how it was his good fortune to meet in after life with "The Flower of Strathmore," as he met also "The Flower of Strathearn" (Lady Nairne, the celebrated authoress of "The Land o' the Leal"). "I confess," he says, "having tried covertly to conjure up visions of the poet and the lady strolling about the braes of Ochtertyre— she listening to conversation that never failed to fascinate, and he basking in rays to which his heart ever turned with as much certainty as the needle turns to the pole. The lady's amiable and kind-hearted sister,” he continues, “ told

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me some charming reminiscences of Burns-how she met him at Sir James Hunter Blair's, when she was young, and perhaps rather handsome, and how she blushed and shrank from the gaze that followed her on being placed next to the poet, and of his manly and easy bearing, and how his eyes glowed like live coals when his own songs were sung."

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This three-days' visit which he enjoyed at Ochtertyre wells up as an ever beautiful memory in the poet's life. The song he wrote within the space is of the purest poetic ore, and is without a carnal thought. His reference in it to "Yarrow" and its "flower" has appealed to some as far-fetched; but to the poet at the moment nothing perhaps might occur more readily. Only a few months before he had been journeying on the Southern Borderland with his friend, Robert Ainslie, and further (as was pointed out to me, on the occasion of a visit some years ago), the rising ground beyond the picturesque gorge immediately in front of Ochtertyre House has long been known by the name of the Yarra, or Yellow Braes. If Burns was told so, as is likely, one can see how aptly the near word would suggest the far, and each with its "flower;" and, as compared with Mary Scott, the light of whose eye had never met his, how could he feel otherwise-how dare he say less-than that

"Phemie was a bonnier lass

Than braes o' Yarrow ever saw"?

CHARLOTTE HAMILTON AND

PEGGY CHALMERS

In one of two letters, written by Burns at Ochtertyre, on the 15th of October, he tells us how, on the northward journey, he had been storm-stayed two days at the foot of the Ochil Hills, with Mr. Tait, of Harvieston, and Mr. Johnston, of Alva; "but," he continues, "was so well pleased that I shall certainly spend a day or two on the banks of the Devon as I return."

Very likely he did so; but Mr. Tait and Mr. Johnston, excellent gentlemen as they may have been, were not the attracting forces. Harvieston was dear to the poet by reason of tenderer ties. Here for the nonce were living with Mrs. Hamilton, the mother of the first to be named, the two charming cousins, Charlotte Hamilton and Peggy Chalmers, than whom, singly or together, no two women ever exercised a purer or better influence on the poet.

Charlotte, who, in 1793, became the wife of Dr. James M'Kittrick Adair, was the half-sister of his worthy friend, Gavin Hamilton, of Mauchline; while Peggy, who, in 1788, became the wife of Mr. Lewis Hay, an Edinburgh banker, had her home meantime with her widowed mother in Edinburgh, where Burns first met her, about a year before. Both ladies had spent much of their youth on the banks of the Ayr, and among friends with whom Burns was familiar. "Of Charlotte," he writes to her half-brother, "I cannot speak in common terms of admiration. She is not only

beautiful but lovely. Her form is elegant; her features not regular, but they have the smile of sweetness and the settled complacency of good nature in the highest degree; and her complexion, now that she has happily recovered her wonted health, is equal to Miss Burnet's. Her eyes are fascinating; at once expressive of good sense, tenderness, and a noble mind."

If he was ever really in love with either lady, however, it was with Peggy Chalmers, with whom he mainly corresponded, yet addressing her-however warmly at times-as a rule less in the rapturous language of the ardent lover than as a confidante and a well-understood friend. If, indeed, he ever at any time cherished the lover's passion for Miss Chalmers, the proof is not to be found in any published letter he addressed to her; but is based mainly, if not entirely, on the statement of Thomas Campbell, the poet, who was a familiar visitor of the lady during her widowhood in after-years in Edinburgh, and who averred that she admitted to him that Burns made her a serious proposal of marriage. In some of his letters to her that have been denied the light of publication (and several, it seems, were withheld) he may have offered his hand with his heart; but his published letters to her-all so frank and so full of admiration for her character though they berather refuse, I think, than yield colour to this impression.*

* If he anywhere admits the soft impeachment it is in a letter of the 30th June, 1787, written to his friend James Smith, of Mauchline, soon after the latter's removal to Linlithgow. Chambers thinks “no safe conjecture can be formed as to the person meant, beyond that of her being an Ayrshire lady." But Scott Douglas fills the blanks indicated with "Edinburgh" and Harvieston," and advances reasons which narrow the conjecture down to a very thin point indeed. Anyway, in that letter the poet says-and the reader may take the statement for

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