Oure gold wes changyd in-to lede, Mr. Macpherson, in a note on this song, makes the following observations: "Horace, in an Epistle addressed to his patron Augustus, reflecting on the high value put upon the works of the antient poets, says, -Adeo sanctum est vetus cmne poëma. "What he says with an invidious sneer, may surely be applied, in good earnest, to this valuable relique of antient Scottish poetry, which is now, at least, twice as old as any remains of Roman poetry can be supposed to have been in the days of Horace, and is, in all probability, the very earliest composition of the Scottish muse which we shall ever see. Of Thomas Rymour of Erceldoune, no genuine remains are known; and the three or four doggrel rhymes made by the people of Berwick, in derision of King Edward, which we have hitherto had as the earliest specimen of Scottish poetry, or even of Scottish language,* are too much corrupted and too insignificant, though they were prior in time, to be mentioned along with this first of the Songs of Scotland, modernized in Wyntoun's time, according to the general and vicious practice of * Long beards heartlesse, transcribers. But we have reason to believe, that we possess it with less deviation from the first composition, than there is in the various copies of the verses on the birth of King Edgar of England, which were said to have been sung by no less personages than angels upon that great event, and are preserved by Robert of Gloucester, (the Wyntoun of England,) and in Latin translations by many of the English writers." The recent recovery of Thomas Rymour's romance of Sir Tristrem must of course displace the elegiac song on the death of Alexander III., from the station in antiquity which Mr. Macpherson has here assigned to it; and, although it is certainly a relic as well worth preserving as a thousand things with which our shelves are lumbered, under the name of antiquities, I must confess, that I share little in the exultation with which this ingenious critic contemplates its restoration to the light. I am inclined to think, that its only merit consists in its age; and cannot help marvelling, that time should be so lenient to a trifle like this, when it has committed such havoc on many works, the preservation of which would have been a benefit conferred on mankind. E. M. GAVIN DOUGLAS. AMONG the most distinguished luminaries that marked the restoration of letters in Scotland, at the commencement of the sixteenth century, was Gavin Douglas, third son of Archibald, "the Great Earl of Angus." He was born about the end of the year 1474, or the beginning of 1475. Being designed, by his father, for the church, he received as liberal an education as Scotland could then furnish, and is supposed to have afterwards made the tour of the Continent, to acquire a knowledge of the customs and manners of other nations, and to improve himself by an intimacy with their men of science and literature. On returning to Scotland and entering into holy orders, his first preferment was to be Provost of the Collegiate Church of Saint Giles, in Edinburgh, a place, at that time, of great dignity and revenue. To this appointment, his family influence speedily added the rectory of Hawick and the abbey of Aberbrothick. When installed into the rectory of Hawick, (1496,) he was but twenty-two years of age. Already rector, provost, and abbot, at an age when men, now-a-days, are only leaving their alma-mater, *Not Heriot, as stated in the Biographical Dictionary and other works. A. S. Douglas is thought to have shewn his fitness for those grave offices, by the sort of recreation to which he devoted the leisure hours of his priesthood. The first production of his muse was a translation of Ovid's Remedy of Love, and this he produced before 1501, within the first five years after his instalment as rector. He had, as Hume of Godscroft informs us, felt the effects of love, but "was soon freed from the tyranny of this unreasonable passion." The Queen Mother, who was Regent of Scotland, during the minoriry of James V. and had married Douglas's nephew, the Earl of Angus, nominated Douglas, in 1514, to the Archbishopric of St. Andrew's; and, in a letter to the Pope, extolled him for his eminent virtue and great learning, and earnestly solicited his holiness to confirm her nomination. But instead of acceding to her request, the Pope granted a bull, appointing Forman, Bishop of Moray, to the vacant dignity; while, at the same time, the chapter, who approved of neither Douglas nor Forman, made choice of John Hepburn, Prior of St. Andrew's. Douglas gained a step on his rivals, by what is generally considered a great step in law, obtaining possession. With a considerable body of retainers, he seized on the castle of St. Andrew's; but Hepburn, with a greater force, soon succeeded in expelling him, and retained the place till Forman appeared with the Earl of Home, and ten thousand men at his back, when he thought it prudent, for an annual consideration, to forego his pretensions, and allow the papal nominee to enter into undisturbed possession. Douglas, who is said to have been ashamed of the ungodly contest, made no attempt to revive his claims. The queen mother, to console him for his disappointment, soon afterwards presented him to the bishopric of Dunekld; and for this preferment, she obtained, through the interest of her brother, Henry VIII. of England, a bull from Pope Leo X. But Douglas had again the misfortune to meet with a powerful competitor in the person of Stewart, brother to the Earl of Athol, who contrived to get himself elected by the chapter, and to obtain the countenance of the Duke of Albany, who had, in the meanwhile, superseded the queen in the regency; Douglas was even imprisoned by the regent for more than a year, on a charge of having acted illegally in procuring a bull from the Pope. It was, indeed, true, that the Scottish parliament had already begun to shew their dislike to papal supremacy, by passing a regulatory act, which amounted nearly to a positive exclusion of the interference of the court of Rome in ecclesiastical appointments within the realm of Scotland; but the act had never as yet been rigidly acted upon. Douglas succeeded, at last, in making his peace with Albany, the regent, and, being set at liberty, was consecrated Bishop of Dunkeld. Athol's brother, however, was, by this time, in possession of the episcopal palace, and it was only by following an example, of which he once affected to be ashamed, and calling an armed force to his aid, that Douglas was able to force Stewart into a capitulation, similar to that by which Hepburn resigned the see of St. Andrew's. The bishop-elect, it is to be presumed, found the grapes of Fife sourer than those of Highland Tay. In 1517, Douglas, now bishop of Dunkeld, accom. |