The deil's awa', the deil's awa',

The deil's awa' wi' the Exciseman ;
He's danced awa', he's danced awa',

He's danced awa' wi' the Exciseman!

There's threesome reels, there's four- for three, etc. some reels,

There's hornpipes and strathspeys, man; But the ae best dance e'er cam to the land Was the deil's awa' wi' the Exciseman. The deil's awa', the deil's awa',

The deil's awa' wi' the Exciseman ;

He's danced awa',' he's danced awa',
He's danced awa' wi' the Exciseman!1

BONNY LESLEY.

"Such, so delighting and so pure, were the emotions of my soul on meeting the other day with Miss Lesley

1 "Lewars arrived shortly after with his dragoons; and Burns, putting himself at their head, waded sword in hand to the brig, and was the first to board her. The crew lost heart, and submitted, though their numbers were greater than those of the assailing force. The vessel was condemned, and, with all her arms and stores, sold next day at Dumfries; upon which occasion, Burns, whose conduct had been highly commended, thought fit to purchase four carronades by way of trophy."-LOCKHART.

Baillie, your neighbour at M[ayfield]. Mr. B., with his two daughters, accompanied by Mr. H. of G., passing through Dumfries a few days ago, on their way to England, did me the honour of calling on me; on which I took my horse- though, God knows, I could ill spare the time—and accompanied them fourteen or fifteen miles, and dined and spent the day with them. 'Twas about nine, I think, when I left them, and riding home, I composed the following ballad, of which you will probably think you have a dear bargain, as it will cost you another groat of postage. You must know that there is an old ballad beginning with:

'My bonny Lizzie Baillie,

I'll rowe thee in my plaidie,' etc.

So I parodied it as follows, which is literally the first copy, 'unanointed, unannealed,' as Hamlet says.” Burns to Mrs. Dunlop, 22d Aug., 1792.

O SAW ye bonny Lesley,

As she gaed owre the Border?

She's gane, like Alexander,

To spread her conquests further.

To see her is to love her,

And love but her for ever;
For nature made her what she is,
And never made anither!

Thou art a queen, fair Lesley,

Thy subjects we, before thee;

Thou art divine, fair Lesley,

The hearts o' men adore thee.

The deil he couldna scaith thee,

Or aught that wad belang thee;
He'd look into thy bonny face,
And say "I canna wrang thee!"

The powers aboon will tent thee;
Misfortune sha' na steer thee;
Thou'rt like themselves sae lovely,
That they'll ne'er let near thee.

Return again, fair Lesley,

Return to Caledonie !

That we may brag we hae a lass
There's nane again sae bonny.1

hurt

care for

molest

1 Miss Lesley Baillie became Mrs. Cumming of Logie, and died in Edinburgh, July, 1843.

APPENDIX.

THE DEIL'S AWA' WI' THE EXCISEMAN.

There may be some flaw in the anecdote so far as this poem is concerned. At least it seems certain that Burns had other prompting for the composition besides his impatience with Lewars, for not only do we see that it is general in its application, but it also had a decided prototype in a poem written many years before, and with which Burns might well be acquainted.

"There lived, more than a century ago, a rhymer named Thomas Whittell, whose chief haunt was at East Shafto, in Northumberland, and who was buried at Hartburn in the same county, 19th April, 1736. His poems, as a ballad-book, have been extensively sold among the country people in the district in which he resided, and I have known them these sixty years. In 1815, they were published in a handsome form by Mr. William Robson, school-master of Morpeth, and from this copy I send you the following extract:

"Did you not hear of a new-found dance, That lately was devised on,

And how the Devil was tired out

By dancing with an Exciseman?

"He toes, he trips, he skips, he leaps,

As if he would bruise his thighs, man; Sometimes the Devil made the better dance, And sometimes the Exciseman.

"The music was an enchanted pipe,
With which the piper plies on;
Betwixt them there was many a wipe,
The Devil was in the Exciseman.

"For sarabands, antics, minuets, jigs,

66 6

Or any dance you could devise on, Although the Devil did dance them well, He came not near the Exciseman.

'They vaulted, leaped, and capers cut,

blow (?)

As if they would mount the skies, man; The Devil to all his trumps was put,

To hold stick with the Exciseman.

"The devil a dance e'er came from France,
But he had them before his eyes, man;
Had you beheld, I'd have been felled,
If you e'er saw one like the Exciseman.

"It put the Devil beside his wits,

666

Whene'er he saw him rise, man; There was the Devil upon Two Sticks Betwixt him and the Exciseman.

They danced so long that from their snout
Sweat drops like dew from the skies, man;