COUNTRY LASSIE.

IN simmer when the hay was mawn,
And corn wav'd green in ilka field,
While claver blooms white o'er the lea,
And roses blaw in ilka bield;
Blythe Bessie in the milking shiel,

Says, I'll be wed come o't what will;
Out spake a dame in wrinkled eild,
O' gude advisement comes nae ill.

Its ye hae wooers mony a ane,
And, lassie, ye're but young, ye ken;
Then wait a wee, and cannie wale,

A routhie butt, a routhie ben:
There's Johnie o' the Buskie-glen,
Fu' is his barn, fu' is his byre;
Tak this frae me, my bonnie hen,
It's plenty beets the luver's fire.

For Johnie o' the Buskie-glen,
I dinna care a single flie;
He lo'es sae weel his craps and kye,
He has nae luve to spare for me:
But blythe's the blink o' Robie's e'e,
And weel I wat he lo'es me dear:
Ae blink o' him I wad na gie

For Buskie-glen and a' his gear.

O thoughtless lassie, life's a faught,
The canniest gate, the strife is sair;
But aye fu' han't is fechtin' best,

A hungry care's an unco care:
But some will spend, and some will spare,
And wilfu' folk maun hae their will;
Syne as ye brew, my maiden fair,

Keep mind that ye maun drink the yill.

O gear will buy me rigs o' land,

And gear will buy me sheep and kye; But the tender heart o' leesome luve, The gowd and siller canna buy: We may be poor, Robie and I,

Light is the burden luve lays on; Content and love brings peace and joy, What mair hae queens upon a throne?

DAINTIE DAVIE.

THIS song, tradition says, and the composition itself confirms it, was composed on the Rev. David Williamson's getting the daughter of Lady Cherrytrees with child, while a party of dragoons were searching her house to apprehend him for being an adherent to the solemn league and covenant. The pious woman had put a lady's night-cap on him, and had laid him a-bed with her own daughter, and passed him to the soldiery as a lady, her daughter's bed-fellow.

A mutilated stanza or two are to be found in Herd's collection, but the original song consists of five or six stanzas, and were their delicacy

Jequal to their wit and humour, they would merit a place in any collection.-The first stanza is,

Being pursued by a dragoon,

Within bed he was laid down ;
my
And well I wat he was worth his room,
For he was my daintie Davie.

DAINTY DAVIE.

Tune-" Dainty Davie."

Now rosy May comes in wi' flowers, To deck her gay green birken bowers, And now come in my happy hours, To wander wi' my Davie.

Meet me on the warlock knowe,

Dainty Davie, dainty Davie ; There I'll spend the day wi' you, My ain dear dainty Davie.

The crystal waters round us fa',
The merry birds are lovers a',
The scented breezes round us blaw,
A-wandering wi' my Davie.
Meet me on, &c.

When purple morning starts the hare,
To steal upon her early fare,
Then through the dews I will repair,
To meet my faithfu' Davie.
Meet me on, &c.

When day, expiring in the west,
The curtain draws o' Nature's rest,
I'll flee to his arms I lo'e best,
And that's my dainty Davie.
Meet me on, &c.

DELUDED SWAIN, THE PLEASURE

Tune" The Collier's Bonnie Lassie."

DELUDED Swain, the pleasure

The fickle fair can give thee

Is but a fairy treasure

Thy hopes will soon deceive thee.

The billows on the ocean,

The breezes idly roaming, The clouds' uncertain motion, They are but types of woman. O! art thou not ashamed

To doat upon a feature? If man thou wouldst be named, Despise the silly creature.

Go, find an honest fellow;

Good claret set before thee: Hold on till thou art mellow; And then to bed in glory.

DOES HAUGHTY GAUL.

Tune-" Push about the Jorum."
April, 1795.

DOES haughty Gaul invasion threat?
Then let the loons beware, Sir,
There's wooden walls upon our seas,
And volunteers on shore, Sir.
The Nith shall run to Corsincon,
And Criffel sink in Solway,t
Ere we permit a foreign foe

On British ground to rally!
Fall de rall, &c.

O let us not. like snarling tykes,

In wrangling be divided; 'Till slap come in an unco loon

And wi' a rung decide it.
Be Britain still to Britain true,
Amang oursels united;
For never but by British hands
Maun British wrangs be righted.
Full de rall, &c.

The kettle o' the kirk and state,
Perhaps a clout may fail in't;
But deil a foreign tinkler loon

Shall ever ca' a nail in't.

Our fathers' bluid the kettle bought,
And wha wad dare to spoil it;
By heaven the sacrilegious dog
Shall fuel be to boil it.

Full de rall, &c.

DOWN THE BURN DAVIE.

VERSE ADDED BY BURNS TO THE OLD SONG.

As down the burn they took their way,

And through the flowery dale,
His cheek to hers he aft did lay,

And love was aye the tale.
With-Mary when shall we return,
Such pleasure to renew?
Quoth Mary, love, I like the burn,
And aye will follow you.

EVAN BANKS.

SLOW spreads the gloom my soul desires,
The sun from India's shore retires;
To Evan banks, with temp'rate ray,
Home of my youth, it leads the day.
Oh! banks to me for ever dear!
Oh! stream whose murmurs still I hear!
All, all my hopes of biiss reside,
Where Evan mingles with the Clyde.

• A well-known rock in the Frith of Clyde.

And she, in simple beauty drest,
Whose image lives within my breast;
Who trembling heard my piercing sigh,
And long pursu'd me with her eye!
Does she, with heart unchang'd as mine,
Oft in the vocal bowers recline?
Or where yon grot o'erhangs the tide,
Muse while the Evan seeks the Clyde.

Ye lofty banks that Evan bound!
Ye lavish woods that wave around,
And o'er the stream your shadows throw,
Which sweetly winds so far below;
What secret charm to mem'ry brings,
All that on Evan's border springs?
Sweet banks! ye bloom by Mary's side:
Blest stream, she views thee haste to Clyde.

Can all the wealth of India's coast
Atone for years in absence lost?
Return, ye moments of delight,
With richer treasures bless my sight!
Swift from this desert let me part,
And fly to meet a kindred heart!
Nor more may aught my steps divide

From that dear stream which flows to Clyde.

FAIR ELIZA.

A GAELIC AIR.

TURN again, thou fair Eliza,

Ae kind blink before we part, Rew on thy despairing lover!

Canst thou break his faithfu' heart! Turn again, thou fair Eliza ;

If to love thy heart denies,
For pity hide the cruel sentence
Under friendship's kind disguise!

Thee, dear maid, hae I offended?

The offence is loving thee: Canst thou wreck his peace for ever, Wha for thine wad gladly die! While the life beats in my bosom,

Thou shalt mix in ilka throe: Turn again, thou lovely maiden, Ae sweet smile on me bestow.

Not the bee upon the blossom,

In the pride o' sinny noon; Not the little sporting fairy,

All beneath the siminer moon; Not the poet in the moment Fancy lightens on his ee, Kens the pleasure, feels the rapture That thy presence gies to me.

FAIREST MAID ON DEVON BANKS.

Tune-"Rothiemurchie."

Fairest maid on Devon banks,
Crystal Devon, winding Devon,
Wilt thou lay that frown aside,

And smile as thou wert wont to do.

FULL well thou knowest I love thee dear,
Couldst thou to malice lend an ear!
O did not love exclaim, "Forbear!
Nor use a faithful lover so."
Fairest maid, &c.

Then come, thou fairest of the fair,
Those wonted smiles, O let me share ;
And by that beauteous self I swear,
No love but thine my heart shall know.
Fairest maid, &c.

FATE GAVE THE WORD.

Tune" Finlayston House."

FATE gave the word, the arrow sped,
And pierced my darling's heart:
And with him all the joys are fled

Life can to me impart.
My cruel hands the sapling drops,
In dust dishonour'd laid:
So fell the pride of all my hopes,
My age's future shade.

The mother linnet in the brake

Bewails her ravished young; So I for my lost darling's sake, Lament the live-day long. Death, oft I've fear'd thy fatal blow, Now fond I bare my breast, O do thou kindly lay me low With him I love at rest!

FOR THE SAKE OF SOMEBODY

My heart is sair, I dare nae tell,

My heart is sair for somebody;

I could wake a winter night
For the sake of somebody.

Oh-hon! for somebody!
Oh-hey! for somebody!

These verses, and the letter enclosing them, are written in a character that marks the very foeble state of their author. Mr. Syme is of opinion that he could not have ben in any danger of a jail at Dumfries, where certainly he had many firm friends, nor under any necessity of imploring aid from Edinburgh. But about this time his mind began to be at times unset tled, and the horrors of a jail perpetually haunted his unagination. He died on the 21st of this month.