"A' nature, blooming, charms the view- Gay vernal flowers of motley hue, Now is the time for those who love Then come, ye tunefu' swains, and prove 66 Again, his joyous song entitled Nancy" conveys the idea of one who could be a Merry-Andrew, and on occasion could sing, dance, hoogh, and snap his thumbs in the most hilarious fashion; but the versification of his poem entitled "Genius" scarcely appears congenial to his muse, and reveals a sedateness of thought and reflection rather than an inspired pen. About two years previous to the publication of Turnbull's volume appeared a poem of rural description entitled "The Har'st Rig," the author of which is unknown. It is generally believed that it is from the same pen as The Farmer's Ha'," which was published some twelve years before, and which purports to have been written by an Aberdeen student. Genius cannot be claimed for "The Har'st Rig" by any means-its value rather consists in that it is a most realistic description of a Scots harvest field in the eighteenth century, with a graphic characterisation of the gleaners, both Highland and Lowland. The Doric employed is quaint, yet expressive and is frequently quoted in Jamieson's Dictionary as a forcible example of the Scots. vernacular. Another of the same coterie of small poets who with Burns contributed to Johnson's Scots Musical Museum was John Hamilton, 1761-1814. In his own day he was better known as a music-seller in Bridge Street, Edinburgh, but he was a composer of Scots airs of some merit and wrote several fine songs some of which are still popular. One of his well-known achievements is his ་་ addition of two stanzas to Burns's song Wind can Blaw," which are so well executed that they were believed to be the work of Burns himself to a comparatively recent date. It is also to his credit that his popular song. "Up in the Mornin' Early," was an improvement on Burns's song on the same subject. It is believed, however, that the tune of this song is of more ancient date, and was wrought into a catch, "I'se gae with thee, my Peggy," which was apparently first published in a collection by John Hinton in 1652. It was also made to serve the base of a birthday song by Henry Purcell, the famous English musician, for the consort of William III. (1692), and was adopted by Gay for one of the songs in his "Beggar's Opera." Hamilton was also the author of several musical pieces, among which is "Miss Forbes' Farewell to Banff.” 1757-1839. In Andrew Scott we have a minor poet of a more robust fibre, though with a less delicate touch, than Hamilton. He was born in 1757, at Bowden Village, Andrew Scott, Roxburghshire, and belonged to the peasant class. After he had reached man's estate he left his birthplace and its rustic scenes behind the Eldon Hills, and entered the military profession, and served as a private soldier through five campaigns of the American War. He was with the army under Cornwallis which surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia. When a young herdladdie a copy of Ramsay's "Gentle Shepherd " fell into his possession, and kindled the spark of poetic fire, which kept aglow till a late period of his life. While in the army he entertained his comrades on many occasions by singing them songs of his own composition, amongst which were," Betsy Rosoe," "The old Oak Tree,” and others. He subsequently returned to his native parish, where he died a farm-labourer, to which occupation had been added the office of church beadle. When nearly fifty years of age, he published at Edinburgh. Kelso. and Jedburgh, five collections of his poetry, which were of sufficient merit to attract the attention of Sir Walter Scott, Lockhart, and others of the Edinburgh litterati of that period. Although fortune does not seem to have cheered him in the course of his long and adventurous career, he maintained a genial optimism to the last, and his poem entitled "Rural Content," or "The Muirland Farmer," is most likely a reflection of his humble tastes and unambitious nature. At all events, the following lines convey his idea of happiness and the simple life : "My biggin' stands sweet on this south slopin' hill, And the sun shines sae bonnily beamin' on't, And past my door trots a clear prattlin' rill, Frae the loch where the wild ducks are swimmin' on't. And on its green banks, on the gay simmer days, While I whistle and sing at the pleughin' o't." 1762-1800 While Andrew Scott was induced to tune his lyre by reading the Gentle Shepherd," Andrew Shirrefs endeavoured to drink more deeply at the same fountain. Andrew Shireefs, Although born at Aberdeen, 1762. some seventy-six years later than Ramsay's time, he made strenuous efforts to emulate the older poet by writing a pastoral play also. This play was entitled Jemie and Bess," in which, like the "Gentle Shepherd," th characters are rustic, and the author displays much familiarity with that mode of life. It was played several times in Aberdeen and once at Edinburgh, but it does not appear to have made a great impression. Like most imitations, it was inferior to its model, though merit of a kind must be allowed it. The poet evidently belonged to a family of some position and intellectual calibre, but owing to a physical infirmity he engaged in the trade of a bookseller, and his shop became, like that of Ramsay's in Edinburgh, a literary rendezvous for authors, poets, and lovers of books. Shirrefs was not void of ambition not withstanding his infirmity, for in addition to writing poetry he started a newspaper which was destined speedily to come to grief, and for some years he carried on the Caledonian Magazine with a moderate degree of success. On the stoppage of the Caledonian Magazine he removed to Edinburgh, where in 1790 he published a volume of poems chiefly in the Scottish dialect. The most ambitious in the collection is his pastoral "Jemie and Bess," but his most popular and best-known piece is his song, "A Cogie o' Yill." After a residence of eight years in Edinburgh he went to London in 1798, but unfortunately his star was soon in the descendant, and after a struggle of a little over two years, duration with fickle fortune, he died at the comparatively early age of forty-eight. When Andrew Shirrefs started the Caledonian Magazine one of his poetical contributors was William Beattie, known as the Heckler Poet, obviously because he was a comber of flax by trade and a caustic wit to boot. Beattie was born at Aberdeen, 1762, William Beattie, 1762-1816. and was a racy and talented rhymster, who could portray homely scenes with a facile pen. By trade, as we have already stated, he was a flax-dresser operative in a factory near his own house in the Gallowgate. Few particulars are known of him, except that he was a drunken, rollicking carle, who believed that most of the ills which flesh is heir to could be cured by a dram. Indeed, his attitude to life could be well summed up in two lines of Burns's famous Bacchanalian song "The cock may craw, the day may daw, Beattie sent a rhymed epistle to the first issue of the Caledonian Magazine, enclosing a poem on "Mortality," and followed it up with the "Winter's Night," which is perhaps his most important poem, and which appears to have been suggested by "The Farmer's Ha'," written upwards of twenty years before. On the dawn of the new century, 1801, Beattie published a small collection of his poems at Aberdeen, under the title of Fruits of Time Parings, which has been several times reprinted. This volume contains The Winter's Night," "The Yule Feast," and "The Alewife Coaxing her Customers," the latter of which abounds with witty and sarcastic allusions. All the poems give graphic touches of rural life, which are mostly happy and always realistic. 1766-1813. In leaving Beattie, who should not be taken too seriously, we pass to Alexander Wilson, an almost forgotten and much neglected author. Yet he was a man who Alexander Wilson, played many parts, and was scarcely less interesting as a man than he was as an author. When he writes verse he has recourse to the rhymed couplet of Alexander Pope, by whom he was evidently impressed, nor is it inappropriate to his vigorous mind and graphi descriptive powers, although he lacks the artistic balance of Pope. Wilson was born at Paisley, July 6th, 1766. Some say he was the son of a small distiller, others that he was the son of a weaver, the latter of which is the more probable. His parents intended that he should enter the Church, but for some reason or other he was apprenticed to the weaving trade when he was thirteen years of age. While a weaver's apprentice he manifested a love of books, of writing verses, and studyi: g nature, for which the sedentary occupation of a weaver was unfavourable. His roving disposition and love of freedom rose in rebellion, and he flung off the fetters of the loom by setting up as a pedlar, an occupation he seems to have followed for three years. he hawked copies of the first volume of his poems, published in 1789; and from his Journal, published in September of the same year, we get a glimpse of his experiences in pushin Along with his other articles of merchandise |