Then Kilmeny begged again to see The friends she had left in her own countrye, To tell of the place where she had been, And the glories that lay in the land unseen. With distant music, soft and deep, They lulled Kilmeny sound asleep; And when she awakened, she lay her lane, All happed with flowers in the greenwood wene. When seven lang years had come and fled, When grief was calm and hope was dead, When scarce was remembered Kilmeny's name, Late, late in a gloamin' Kilmeny came hame! And oh, her beauty was fair to see, But still and steadfast was her e'e; Such beauty bard inay never declare, For there was no pride nor passion there; And the soft desire of maiden's een, In that mild face could never be seen. Her seymar was the lily flower, And her cheek the moss-rose in the shower; To suck the flowers and drink the spring, Broke from their bughts and faulds the tame, The corbie left her houff in the rock; And the tod, and the lamb, and the leveret ran; It was like an eve in a sinless world! When a month and a day had come and gane, THE SKYLARK. BIRD of the wilderness, Sweet be thy matin o'er mountain and lea! Blest is thy dwelling-place O to abide in the desert with thee! Love gives it energy, love gave it birth, Where art thou journeying? Thy lay is in heaven, thy love is on earth. O'er fell and fountain sheen, O'er moor and mountain green, O'er the red streamer that heralds the day, Over the cloudlet dim, Over the rainbow's rim, Musical cherub, soar, singing, away! Then, when the gloaming comes, Low in the heather blooms, Sweet will thy welcome and bed of love be! Blest is thy dwelling-place— O to abide in the desert with thee! Sir Walter Scott. Born 1771. SCOTT was born at Edinburgh, on the 15th August 1771. His father was a Writer to the Signet, and a relative of the Scotts of Buccleuch. In early life Scott was in very delicate health, and a lameness, resulting from a fever, led to his being sent to his paternal grandfather's, near Kelso, where his youth was chiefly spent, and where he filled his young mind with the romantic tales of Border chivalry. After passing through the High School and University of Edinburgh with credit, Scott was apprenticed to his father as a writer, after which he studied for the bar, and was admitted of the Faculty of Advocates in 1792. In 1796 he married Miss Charlotte M. Carpenter, whom he had first met at a watering-place in Cumberland, and the young couple removed to Lasswade, where they spent some years in great happiness. In 1799 Scott obtained the appointment of sheriff of Selkirkshire, with L.300 a-year. He now paid a visit to the Borders, partly on official duty and partly to collect ballad poetry, which he published in 1802, under the title " Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border." After some other labours of a similar kind, at length appeared, in 1805, the original poem "The Lay of the Last Minstrel;" it met with instant and unprecedented success, and stamped his character as one of the highest of our native poets. In 1808 appeared "Marmion," and in 1810 "The Lady of the Lake," the latter being the most popular of his poems, even to this day. In 1811 was published "The Vision of Don Roderick;" in 1813, "Rokeby;" and in 1814, "The Lord of the Isles." These later pieces did not by any means meet with the success that attended his earlier pieces; Scott, with the instinct of genius, felt that the old mine gave symptoms of being worked out, and devoted himself to prose fiction; and as the author of "Waverley," "Ivanhoe," "The Antiquary," &c., his name rose still higher in the ear of fame. In 1820 George the Fourth conferred on him the honour of baronetcy. Scott had, in 1811, purchased the estate of Cartley Hole, near Melrose; and here he built the romantic mansion-house of Abbotsford, which name he gave to the whole estate which he had enlarged from year to year by successive purchases. Here he received innumerable visitors of all ranks, from the prince downward; and his establishment, conducted on the most liberal scale, was sustained by the enormous sums made by his writings. Unfortunately for Scott, he had in 1805 been induced to join in partnership with James Ballantyne, a printer in Edinburgh, and afterwards to form intimate relations with the firm of Constable, a publisher. In 1826 the latter firm failed, and on examining the mixed liabilities of the two businesses, it was found that Scott was indebted upwards of L.100,000. To any ordinary man this would have been crushing, but it only roused Scott to exertion; he would listen to no compromise with his creditors, and prepared, by the fruits of his pen, to clear off the whole. He actually, in a few years, made up about L.70,000 of this sum; but his health gave way. In 1831 he was persuaded to take a foreign tour, in the hope of re-establishing it; the Admiralty furnished a ship, and he sailed for Naples. But it was too late; both body and mind were hopelessly shattered, and he returned home to Abbotsford only to die. In his latter moments he had read to him, from time to time, favourite passages from the Bible; and on the 21st September 1832 he breathed his last, in the presence of all his children. THE MINSTREL. THE way was long, the wind was cold, The unpremeditated lay: Old times were changed, old manners gone; A stranger fill'd the Stuarts' throne; The bigots of the iron time Had call'd his harmless art a crime. A wandering Harper, scorn'd and poor, MELROSE ABBEY. Ir thou would'st view fair Melrose aright, For the gay beams of lightsome day, When the broken arches are black in night, When buttress and buttress, alternately, When silver edges the imagery, And the scrolls that teach thee to live and die; When distant Tweed is heard to rave, And the owlet to hoot o'er the dead man's grave, Then go but go alone the while- LOVE OF COUNTRY. BREATHES there the man, with soul so dead, O Caledonia! stern and wild, That knits me to thy rugged strand! Sole friends thy woods and streams were left; And thus I love them better still, Even in extremity of ill. By Yarrow's streams still let me stray, |