THE WREN'S NEST

Since life's gay scenes must charm no more,
Still much is left behind,

Still nobler wealth hast thou in store-
The comforts of the mind!

Thine is the self-approving glow,
Of conscious Honour's part;
And (dearest gift of Heaven below)
Thine Friendship's truest heart.

The joys refin'd of Sense and Taste,
With every Muse to rove:
And doubly were the Poet blest,
These joys could he improve.

R. B.

Fragment.-Leezie Lindsay.1

WILL ye go to the Hielands, Leezie Lindsay,
Will ye go to the Hielands wi' me?
Will ye go to the Hielands, Leezie Lindsay,
My pride and my darling to be.

Fragment.-The Wren's Nest.2

THE Robin to the Wren's nest
Cam keekin in, cam keekin in;
O weel's me on your auld pow,b
Wad ye be in, wad ye be in?
Thou's ne'er get leave to lie without,
And I within, and I within,
Sae lang's I hae an auld clout
To rowe ye in, to rowe ye in.

CROWDIE EVER MAIR

News, Lassies, News.1

THERE'S news, lassies, news,

Gude news I've to tell!
There's a boatfu' o' lads

Come to our town to sell.

Chorus-The wean wants a cradle,

And the cradle wants a cod": I'll no gang to my bed,

Until I get a nod.

Father, quo' she, Mither, quo she,

Do what you can,

I'll no gang to my bed,

Until I get a man.

The wean, &c.

I hae as gude a craft righ

As made o' yird and stane;

And waly fa'd the ley-crap,e

For I maun till'd again.

The wean, &c.

Crowdie ever mair.2

O THAT I had ne'er been married,
I wad never had nae care,
Now I've gotten wife an' weans,'
An' they cry "Crowdie "s evermair.

Chorus-Ance crowdie, twice crowdie,
Three times crowdie in a day
Gin ye crowdie ony mair,
Ye'll crowdie a' my meal away.

JOCKEY'S PARTING KISS

a scare.

Waefu' Want and Hunger fley me,

b

Glowrin by the hallan en';

Sair I fecht them at the door,

But aye I'm eeried they come ben.
Ance crowdie, &c.

Mally's meek, Mally's sweet.1
Chorus-MALLY's meek, Mally's sweet,
Mally's modest and discreet;
Mally's rare, Mally's fair,

Mally's every way complete.

As I was walking up the street,
A barefit maid I chanc'd to meet;
But O the road was very hard

For that fair maiden's tender feet.
Mally's meek, &c.

It were mair meet that those fine feet
Were weel laced up in silken shoon;
An' 'twere more fit that she should sit
Within yon chariot gilt aboon,
Mally's meek, &c.

Her yellow hair, beyond compare,

Comes trinklin down her swan-like neck, And her two eyes, like stars in skies, Would keep a sinking ship frae wreck, Mally's meek, &c.

Jockey's taen the parting kiss.2

Air-"Bonie lass tak a man.'

JOCKEY'S taen the parting kiss,
O'er the mountains he is gane,
And with him is a' my bliss,

Nought but griefs with me remain,

1 Mally is not a heroine with a recognised original.

d frightened.

2 Probably written in sickness.

TO COLLECTOR MITCHELL

Spare my Love, ye winds that blaw,
Plashy sleets and beating rain!
Spare my Love, thou feath'ry snaw,
Drifting o'er the frozen plain!

When the shades of evening creep
O'er the day's fair, gladsome e'e,
Sound and safely may he sleep,
Sweetly blythe his waukening be.
He will think on her he loves,
Fondly he'll repeat her name;
For where'er he distant roves,
Jockey's heart is still the same.

Verses to Collector Mitchell.1

FRIEND of the Poet, tried and leal,
Wha, wanting thee, might beg or steal;
Alake, alake, the meikle deil

Wi' a' his witches

Are at it skelpin jig and reel,
In my poor pouches ?

I modestly fu' fain wad hint it,
That One-pound-one, I sairly want it;
If wi' the hizzieb down ye sent it,
It would be kind;

And while my heart wi' life-blood dunted,
I'd bear't in mind.

So may the Auld year gang out moanin
To see the New come laden, groanin,
Wi' double plenty o'er the loanin,

1 The same illness of the winter of 1795 is alluded to here.

THE DEAN OF FACULTY

& vest.

POSTSCRIPT.

Ye've heard this while how I've been lickit,
And by fell Death was nearly nickit;
Grim loon! he got me by the fecket,"
And sair me sheuk;

But by gude luck I lap a wicket,
And turn'd a neuk.

But by that health, I've got a share o't,
And by that life, I'm promis'd mair o't,
My hale and weel, I'll tak a care o't,
A tentier way;

Then farewell folly, hide and hair o't,
For ance and aye!

The Dean of Faculty.1

A New Ballad.

Tune--"The Dragon of Wantley."
DIRE was the hate at old Harlaw,
That Scot to Scot did carry;
And dire the discord Langside saw
For beauteous, hapless Mary:
But Scot to Scot ne'er met so hot,
Or were more in fury seen, Sir,

Than 'twixt Hal and Bob for the famous job,
Who should be the Faculty's Dean, Sir.

This Hal for genius, wit and lore,

Among the first was number'd;
But pious Bob, 'mid learning's store,
Commandment the tenth remember'd:

Yet simple Bob the victory got,

And wan his heart's desire,

Which shews that heaven can boil the pot,
Tho' the devil piss in the fire.

b health and welfare.

1 Henry Erskine, Dean of Faculty, and a Whig, presided at a public meeting in an Edinburgh Theatre. The Scottish Bar, offended by such

more careful.

a liberal proceeding, elected Dundas of Arniston by 123 votes against 38. The Whigs had protested against a Sedition Bill. (Chambers.)