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Come up amang our Highland hills,

Thou wee wee German lairdie, "And see the Stuarts' lang-kail thrive

We dibbled in our yardie:

And if a stock ye dare to pu',

Or haud the yoking o' a pleugh,

We'll break

your sceptre o'er your mou', Thou wee bit German lairdie.

Our hills are steep, our glens are deep,

Nae fitting for a yardie;

And our Norland thistles winna pu',
Thou wee bit German lairdie:

And we've the trenching blades o' weir
Wad prune ye o' your German gear-
We'll pass ye 'neath the claymore's sheer,
Thou feckless German lairdie.

Auld Scotland, thou'rt o'er cauld a hole
For nursing foreign vermin;

But the very dogs o' England's court,

They bark and howl in German.

Short while they'll fawn and lick thy hand

We come wi' target and wi' brand

To sweep them frae the southron land

Thou wee wee German lairdie.

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The idea of this song is old, so are the three starting lines; all the rest is modern. The poverty of the Elector of Hanover, and the laborious industry with which he strove to maintain the external show of worldly splen

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dour, formed a theme for the Jacobite bards both of England and of Scotland. I have before me a copy of a scoffing ballad, which was chanted through London on the arrival of George the First. Had the monarch understood our language, the song must have given him a very mean idea of Jacobite satire. Its burthen is German poverty and English abundance, and the wonder which our wardrobes and dinner tables excited in the royal minds of the strangers.

THE CUCKOO.

The Cuckoo's a bonny bird when he comes home,
The Cuckoo's a bonny bird when he comes home;
He'll fley away the wild birds that flutter round the
throne

My bonny bonny Cuckoo when he comes home.
The Cuckoo's a bonny bird, and he'll ha'e his day;
The Cuckoo's the royal bird, whatever they may say;
Wi' the whistle o' his mou, and the blink o' his e'e,
He'll scare a' the unco birds away frae me.

The Cuckoo's a bonny bird when he comes home,
The Cuckoo's a bonny bird when he comes home;
He'll fley away the wild birds that flutter round the
throne

My bonny Cuckoo, when he comes home.

The Cuckoo's a bonny bird, but far frae his hame,

I ken him by the feathers that grow about his kame; And round that double kame yet a crown I hope to see, For my bonny Cuckoo he is dear unto me.

:

"I took these two verses," says James Hogg, "from the recitation of a shrewd idiot, one whom we call in Scots a half daft man,' named William Dodds; who gave it as a quotation, in a mock discourse which he was accustomed to deliver to the lads and lasses in the winter evenings, to their infinite amusement, in the style and manner of a fervent preacher. It is not easy to discover where the similarity existed between the Chevalier and the cuckoo." The similarity is this with the coming of the cuckoo the Chevalier was looked for the bird and the prince were expected in April: the cuckoo was therefore "a bonnie bird when he came hame," since his first note in the land, and the warcry of the Stuarts, would be heard together. In the same manner a violet was employed by the partisans of Buonaparte to indicate the period of his return from Elba. "Il reviendrai au printems," was their ambiguous motto; and their hero was recognised and his praises celebrated under the fantastic epithet of " Corporal Violet."

T

“PHAE NAE KITH, I HAE NAE KIN.

I hae nae kith, I hae nae kin,

Nor ane that's dear to me,

For the bonny lad that I lo❜e best,

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He's gane wi' ane that was our ain,

And we may rue the day

When our king's daughter came here
To play sic foul play.

O, gin I were a bonny bird,

Wi' wings that I might flee,

Then I wad travel o'er the main,

My ae true love to see;

Then I wad tell a joyfu' tale

To ane that's dear to me,
And sit upon a king's window,
And sing my melody.

The adder lies i' the corbie's nest,

Aneath the corbie's wame;

And the blast that reaves the corbie's brood

Shall blaw our good king hame.

Then blaw ye east, or blaw

ye west,

Or blaw ye o'er the faem,
O bring the lad that I lo'e best,

And ane I darena name.

James Hogg says, "This is a very sweet and curious little old song, but not very easily understood. The air is exceedingly simple, and the verses highly characteristic of the lyrical songs of Scotland." The ingratitude of the Prince and Princess of Orange many old songs have celebrated :

Ken ye the rhyme to porringer

Ken ye the rhyme to porringer?
King James he had a daughter dear,

A

And he gave her to an Oranger.

Ken ye how he requited him

Ken ye how he requited him?
The knave into Old England came,

And took the crown in spite o' him.

Scottish verse-makers indulged to the last the idle hope of the return of the Stuarts, and expressed their wishes in a thousand forms of hope and prophecy. Their expectations may be traced through innumerable mazes of allegorical absurdity; but they may be well excused for this affectation, since a plainer song would have put them in some small jeopardy.

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