God bless the trade." R. B. The tune to which this song was composed is very old. Bonnie Dundee is also the name of a Jacobite song, composed on Viscount Dundee who fell at the battle of Killicrankie. A better version of the words above given appears in the Harp of Caledonia, the additions to which are obviously from the pen of Burns: but the reader may judge for himself— O whare gat ye that bonnie blue bonnet? O what makes them aye put the question to me? I gat it frae a bonnie Scots callan, Atween St. Johnstoun and bonnie Dundee. Long did I bear the heavy yoke, And many griefs attended; But, to my comfort be it spoke, Now, now her life is ended. II. We liv'd full one-and-twenty years, At length from me her course she steer'd, III. Her body is bestowed well, A handsome grave does hide her; But sure her soul is not in hell, The deil could ne'er abide her. I rather think she is aloft, And imitating thunder; For why,--methinks I hear her voice Tearing the clouds asunder. [The old Scottish lyric bards loved to sing of the sorrows of wedlock and the raptures of single blessedness. "The Auld Guidman" is an admirable specimen of matrimonial infelicity; it forms a sort of rustic drama, and the surly pair scold verse and verse about. Burns, when he wrote "The Joyful Widower," thought on the strains of his elder brethren, and equalled, if he did not surpass, them. It was first printed in the Musical Museum.] There was a Wife. I. There was a wife wonn'd in Cockpen, Scroggam; She brew'd guid ale for gentlemen, Sing auld Cowl, lay you down by me, Scroggam, my dearie, ruffum. O gin I saw the laddie that gae me't! My heart has nae room when I think on my laddie, My blessings upon that sweet wee lippie! The title of this song and a part of the chorus are old: the rest is by Burns: of the old words, snatches still remain on men's memories: "My mither coft me a new gown, The kirk maun hae the gracing o't; I'm owre young, I'm owre young, To tak me frae my mammy yet. II. Oh! what is death but parting breath ?— III. Untie these bands from off my hands, And bring to me my sword! And there's no a man in all Scotland But I'll brave him at a word. IV. I've liv'd a life of sturt and strife; I die by treacherie : It burns my heart I must depart, And not avenged be. V. Now farewell light-thou sunshine bright, May coward shame distain his name, Sae rantingly, sae wantonly, Sae dauntingly gaed he; He play'd a spring, and danc'd it round, ["Macpherson's Lament," says Sir Walter Scott, was a well-known song many years before the Ayr-shire Bard wrote these additional verses, which constitute its principal merit. This noted freebooter was executed at Inverness about the beginning of the last century. When he came to the fatal tree, he played the tune to which he has bequeathed his name, upon a favourite violin: and, holding up the instrument, he offered it to any one of his clan who would undertake to play the tune over his body at the lyke-wake. As none answered, he dashed it to pieces on the executioner's head, and flung himself from the ladder." * "Sir Walter Scott has said that this noted freebooter was executed at Inverness, but a writer in the New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 1. p. 142, corrects this error. Macpherson was executed at Banff, early on Friday morning, November 16th, in the year 1700, several hours before the time specified in the sentence for his execution. It is said that his execution was hurried on by the Magistrates, and that they The Banff tradition relates that Macpherson was chief of a branch of the clan Chattan: a freebooter by choice or chance, and of unequalled strength and courage. He imagined, as he descended with his followers from the mountains, that he was but asserting the independence of his wild tribe, and believed, when he harried the vales, that he was taking a lawful prey. Macduff, of Braco, was not of this opinion he resisted the spoliation of his lands, and, in several encounters with Macpherson, ascertained that stratagem was more likely to be successful than open force. Having heard that the freebooter was at the fair of Keith, with only one companion, he instantly entered the town, singled him out, and attacked him in the market-place. Macpherson fought with the most desperate courage-several fell by his hand, and he made his way through all opposition to the churchyard, but, stumbling as he defended himself, he was overpowered and captured, conveyed to Banff, and condemned to die. His execution was attended by those romantic cir also caused the messenger intrusted with the reprieve for this notorious criminal to be stopped by the way, in consequence of which acts of injustice, it is alleged, the town of Banff was deprived of the power of trying and executing malefactors. "The following is said to be the real composition of the unfortunate Macpherson himself when in jail, waiting the severe sentence of the law, and owes its preservation to the following cause:-A young woman of respectable parents, with whom he had lived during his unsettled life, had formed for him an inseparable attachment, so that in his dungeon she was known to love him. She learned her lover's farewell, which she called the remains of her Jamie,' while in prison, and after having witnessed his final exit on an inglorious gallows, she returned to her wandering life, which she led ever after, and sung, wherever she went, the following song, as composed by Macpherson : 'I've spent my time in rioting, But dantinly and wantonly, I'll play a tune, and dance it roun', "To hang upon the gallows-tree, Accurs'd, disgraceful, death! And stifled in my breath! My father was a gentleman Of fame and lineage high; Oh! mother, would you ne'er had borne A wretch so doom'd to die. 'The laird o' Grant, with power aboon The royal majesty, He pled fu' well for Peter Brown, But let Macpherson die. 'But Braco Duff, in rage enough, If death did not arrest my course, 'But vengeance I did never wreak When power was in my hand, And you, my friends, no vengeance seek, Obey my last command. The cumstances related by Scott; his body was buried on the Gallow-hill, beneath the gallows-tree-The sword and shield of Macpherson are deposited in the Earl of Fife's armoury at Duff-house, near Banff, and are in a state of tolerable preservation, though it is evident they had undergone much tear and wear while in the hands of their original owner. sword is double-handed, six feet in length, and waved or scalloped along the edge of the blade, which is about the breadth of a common scythe. The shield is composed of wood, bull's-hide, and brass nails, with the latter of which it is curiously ornamented. Such a ponderous weapon required a powerful man-and such, indeed, he was; for, when his grave was opened some years ago, his bones exceeded in strength those common to nature. The shield is hacked and dinted in several places; one or two bullets, too, have passed through the thick studding and the massive wood, and are lodged in the outside coating of leather. They are viewed with much interest by the curious. 'Forgive the man whose rage could seek 'And ye that blame with cruel scorn Oh! think, if homeless, houseless born, 'If all the wealth on land and sea 'I've led a life o' meikle strife, of Fife, and few men of our day could carry it, far less wield it as a weapon of war; and if it must be owned that his prowess was debased by the exploits of a free-booter, it is certain no act of cruelty, no robbery of the widow, the fatherless, or the distressed, and no murder, were ever perpetrated under his command. He often gave the spoils of the rich to relieve the poor; and all his tribe were restrained from many atrocities and rapine by the awe of his mighty arm. Indeed, it is said that a dispute with an aspiring and savage man of his tribe, who wished to rob a gentleman's house while his wife and two children lay on the bier for interment, was the cause of his being betrayed to the vengeance of the law. The Magistrates of Aberdeen were exasperated at Macpherson's escape, and bribed a girl in that city to allure and deliver him into their hands. There is a platform before the jail, at the top of a stair, and a door below. When "The last four lines of another recited copy Macpherson's capture was made known to his seem to be at variance with the above, for in comrades by the frantic girl, who had been so them he is said to have had a wife and bairns; wanted to hear the wonderful performer on the credulous as to believe the magistrates only but, if we take to account the unsettled 'ways of the gipsy tribe to which Macpherson belonged, violin, his cousin, Donald Macpherson, a genand that they were allowed the same indulgence tleman of Herculean powers, did not disdain to as the patriarchs of old-polygamy, or a pluracome from Badenoch, and to join a gipsy, Peter lity of wives and concubines the preceding Brown, in liberating the prisoner. On a marwill be, as a painter would say, quite in keep-ket-day they brought several assistants; and ing. But dantinly and wantonly, I'll play a tune, and dance it roun', 'Farewell my comrades ane an' a', Sae wantonly, &c.' "The fiddle, which was then in his arms, and had been his solace in many a gloomy hour, was offered to several of the bystanders, but, none having courage to accept of the proffered boon, he dashed it to pieces, that it might perish with himself, and so went singing into eternity. His body afterwards found a restingplace beneath the gallows-tree on which he paid the forfeit of his life." swift horses were stationed at a convenient distance. Donald Macpherson and Peter Brown forced the jail; and, while Peter Brown went to help the heavily-fettered James Macpherson in moving away, Donald Macpherson guarded the jail-door with a drawn sword. Many persons assembled at the market had experienced James Macpherson's humanity, or had shared his bounty; and they crowded round the jail as in mere curiosity, but, in fact, to obstruct the civil authorities in their attempts to prevent a rescue. A butcher, however, was resolved to detain Macpherson, expecting a large recompense from the magistrates: he sprung up the stairs, and leaped from the platform upon Donald Macpherson, whom he dashed to the ground by We shall now conclude this interesting notice the force and weight of his body. Donald Macof Macpherson, by giving the account we have pherson soon recovered, to make a desperate of him in the New Monthly Magazine. "James resistance; and the combatants tore off each Macpherson was born of a beautiful gipsy, who, other's clothes. The butcher got a glimpse of at a great wedding, attracted the notice of a his dog upon the platform, and called him to half-intoxicated Highland gentleman. He ac- his aid; but Macpherson, with admirable preknowledged the child, and had him reared sence of mind, snatched up his own plaid, which in his house, until he lost his life in bravely lay near, and threw it over the butcher, thus pursuing a hostile clan, to recover a herd of misleading the instinct of his canine adversary; cattle taken from Badenoch. The gipsy woman, The dog darted with fury upon the plaid, and hearing of this disaster, in her rambles the fol- terribly lacerated his master's thigh. In the lowing summer, came and took away her boy; meantime, James Macpherson had been carried but she often returned with him, to wait upon out by Peter Brown, and was soon joined by his relations and clansmen, who never failed to Donald Macpherson, who was quickly covered clothe him well, besides giving money to his by some friendly spectator with a hat and great mother. He grew up to beauty, strength, and coat. The magistrates ordered webs from the stature, rarely equalled. His sword is still pre-shops to be drawn across the Gallowgate; but served at Duff House, a residence of the Earl Donald Macpherson cut them asunder with his |