THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES SCOTTISH POETRY OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. Published by WIU.IAM Honr.E Co., Glasgow WILLIAMS & NOKCATE, London and Edinburgh Hbbotsforo Series of tbc Scotttsb poets Edited by GEORGE EYRE-TODD SCOTTISH POETRY OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VOLUME 11 JAMES BEATTIE ALEXANDER GEDDES JAMES MACPHERSON JAMES MUIRHEAD JOHN EVVEN ISOBEL PAGAN MRS. HUNTER ALEXANDER, DUKE OF CORDON AI.EXAN DER WATSON -JAMES KORUYCE HECTOR MACNEIL MICHAEL BRUCE ADAM AUSTIN- MRS. GRANT OF CARRON SUSANNA BLAMIRE- RICHARD HEWITT JAMES TYTLER- JOHN LOGAN -ELIZABETH HAMILTON JOHN LOWE ROBERT GRAHAM OF GARTMORE LADY ANNE LINDSAY WILLIAM DUDGEON ROBERT FERGUSSON JOHN DUNLOP MRS. GRANT OF LAGGAN JEAN GLOVER -JOHN P1NK.ERTON JOHN MAYNE ROBERT BURNS THE AUTHOR OF "THE HAR'ST RIG" GAVIN TURNBULL JOHN HAMILTON ANDREW SCOIT ANDREW SHIRREFS WILLIAM BEAT 1 IE ALEXANDER WILSON CAROLINA OLIPHANT EBENEZER PICKEN RICHARD GALL LONDON AND EDINBURGH SANDS & COMPANY v. CONTENTS. PAGE JAMES BEATTIK, i The Minstrel, 3 Retirement, ........ 10 ALEXANDER GEUDES, ...... 13 Lewie Gordon, ....... 14 The Battle of Bangor, 16 JAMES MACPHERSON, 21 The Earl Marischal's Welcome to his Native Country, 23 JAMES MUIRHEAD, 30 Bess the Gawkie, ...... 30 JOHN E\VEN, 33 The Boatie Rows, ...... 33 ISOBEL PAGAN, 36 Ca' the Vowes to the Knowes, .... 36 The Crook and Plaid, ...... 38 MRS. HUNTER, ........ 40 My Mother bids me bind my Hair, ... 40 To-Morrow, ........ 42 vijj COX TENTS. l-AC.K ALEXANDER, DUKK OF GORDON, . 43 Caulcl Kail in Aberdeen, 43~ ALEXANDER WATSON, ...... 46 The Wee Wifukie, 46 The Kail Brose of Scotland, .... 50 JAMKS FORDYCK, 53 The 1 Slack Eagle 53 HKCTOK MACNEIL, . 55 " I lo'ed ne'er a Laddie I nit ane," ... 56 "Saw ye my wee thing?'' ..... 58 Come under my Plaidie, 60 Jeanie's Black E'e, .....'. 62 MICHAEL BKUCK, ....... 64 Ode to the Cuckoo, ...... 68 Elegy written in Spring, ..... 7 The Complaint of Nature, ..... 74 ADAM AUSTIN, 78 For Lack of Gold, 78 MRS. ( IRANI OF CAKRON, ..... 79 Roy's Wife, ........ 79 SUSANNA BI.AMIKK, ....... 81 And ye shall walk in silk attire, ... 82 The Nabob, 83 RICHARD HEWITT, 86 Koslin Castle. ....... 86 JAMKS TYTI.KR, ........ 88 Loch Krroch Side 88 The Bonnie Bruc.kit Lassie, .... 90 Lass, gin ye lo'e me, ...... 92 CONTENTS. JOHN LOGAN, The Braes of Yarrow, .... On the Death of a Young Lady, ELIZABETH HAMILTON, .... My ain Fireside, ..... JOHN LOWE, Mary's Dream, ..... ROBERT GRAHAM OF GARTMORE, Cavalier's Song, ..... LADY ANNE LINDSAY, .... Auld Robin Gray, .... WILLIAM DUDGEON, ..... The Maid that tends the Goats, . ROBERT FERGUSSON, ..... Ode to the Gowdspink, Leith Races, ..... The Farmer's Ingle, .... The Sitting of the Session, . Braid Claith, ..... The Daft Days, JOHN DUNLOP, Oh ! dinna ask me gin I lo'e thee, The Year that's awa', .... MRS. GRANT OF LAGGAN, "O where, tell me where," Could I find a bonnie Glen, JEAN GLOVER, O'er the Muir amang the Heather, x CONTENTS. PAGE JOHN PINKERTON, 149 Bothwell Bank, 149 JOHN MAYNE, 151 The Siller Gun, 152 The Winter sat lang, . 1 60 Logan Braes, ....... 161 Hallowe'en, ........ 162 ROBERT BURNS, ........ 165 Tarn o' Shanter : a Tale, . 172 The Cotter's Saturday Night, . 181 Holy Willie's Prayer, . 189 Epitaph on Holy Willie, ..... 194 To a Mouse, ....... 195 Hallowe'en, . 198 Epistle to J. Lapraik, ...... 209 Flow gently, sweet Afton, . 215 Willie brewed a Peck o' Maut, . 217 Oh, wert thou in the Cauld Blast, . 219 To Mary in Heaven, ...... 220 Tarn Glen, ........ 222 Of a' the Airts, ....... 224 Bruce's Address to his Army at Bannockburn, . 225 Whistle and I'll come to you, .... 227 Nannie, ........ 228 Mary Morison, ....... 230 For a' that and a' . that, . 231 My Nannie's awa", ...... 233 Aulcl Lang Syne, ...... 234 The Banks o' Doon, ...... 236 ain kind ! . My dearie, O . 237 Last a braw . May wooer, . 238 Ae fond . kiss, ..... 240 CONTENTS. x i PAGE THE AUTHOR OF "THE HAR'ST RIG," . 241 The Har'st Rig, ....... 242 GAVIN TURNBULL, 252 May, 253 Nancy, ........ 256 To Melancholy, ....... 257 Genius, ........ 258 JOHN HAMILTON, ....... 260 Oh, blaw ye Westlin' Winds ! . , . 261 Up in the Mornin' Early, ..... 262 Miss Forbes' Farewell to Banff, .... 264 ANDREW SCOTT, ....... 265 Rural Content : or, The Muirland Farmer, . 265 ANDREW SHIRREFS, ....... 269 A Cogie o' Yill, ....... 270 WILLIAM BEATTIE, ....... 272 The Winter's Night, ...... 273 ALEXANDER WILSON. ...... 284 The Laurel Disputed, ...... 285 CAROLINA OLIPHANT, 293 The Land o' the Leal, ..... 295 The Laird o' Cockpen, ..... 297 Caller lierrin', ....... 299 The Auld House, ...... 301 The Lass o' Gowrie, ...... 303 The Pleughman, ....... 305 The Rowan Tree, 306 "Bonnie ran the Burnie doun," .... 308 Charlie is my Darling, . 310 He's ower the Hills that I lo'e weel, . 312 The White Rose o' June, ..... 314 xii CONTENTS. I'AGE EBENEZER PICKEN, 3^ New Year's . Day, . 317 Blithe are we set wi' ither, ..... 323 Pretty Nell, 325 Woo me again, 328 Nan of Logic Green, ...... 330 RICHARD GALL, 332 and My only Jo Dearie, O, .... 332 Cradle Song, 334 The Hazelwood Witch, 335 JAMES BEATTIE. During the latter half of the eighteenth century the literary traditions of the most northerly university town of Scotland the city of John Barbour and of Hector Boece -were honourably upheld by a small knot of poets. Of these the most academic remains the most famous. Poet and professor, philosopher and man of letters, James Beattie was no less distinguished " " " " in his time by his Minstrel and his prose Essay on Truth than by the encouragement and help which he constantly afforded to men of genius less fortunately placed. Not only were Ross and Blacklock substantially indebted to him for the furtherance of their literary fortunes, but constantly in the literary history of the time one comes upon hints and helps given now to one poet and now to another, which again and again bore valuable fruit. Beattie indeed may be said to have been for forty years a gentle and more generous Johnson, at once the literary dictator and the Maecenas of the far north. " " The author of The Minstrel was the son of a considerable farmer, and was born at Laurencekirk in the county of Kin- cardine. After taking his degree at Marischal College in 1753, he was for a time schoolmaster at Fordoun, and became later a teacher in the grammar school of Aberdeen. In 1760 he was chosen Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic in his alma mater and from that time his life was that the ; onward public of prosperous academic and man of letters. A year after taking his chair he printed his first volume of poetry, but though it was handsomely received by the critics, it was afterwards suppressed by the author himself. In 1765 he appeared again before the public with a poem "The Judgement of Paris," in which the classic story was made, parablewise, to shadow forth an ethical lesson. His chief prose work was his great "Essay on Truth." This was considered perhaps the most masterly treatise of its day, and a powerful counterblast to the philosophy of Hume, and it brought its author not only a European renown, but no fewer than two invitations from the highest ecclesiastical quarters to accept preferment in the Church B VII 2 JAMES BEATTIE, of England. These invitations he of course did not accept, but his society was much sought after, and for some time in I77 1 he was lionised in cultivated London society. He was the author also of a work on Christian Evidences, and of another volume of essays. Beattie's fame, however, at the present day depends almost entirely on his poem "The Minstrel." The first part of the poem, which is also the best, was mostly written in 1768. It appeared in 1770, and the two cantos which comprise the entire work were published together in 1777. The design of "The Minstrel, according to its author's preface, was "to trace the progress of a poetical genius, born in a rude age, from the first dawning of fancy and reason, till that period at which he may be supposed capable of appearing in the world ' as a minstrel.'1 1 A has been drawn between Beattie's parallel" "Minstrel" and Byron's Childe Harold," both in purpose and and there can be doubt that derived style, hardly any " Byron his idea from the elder poet. The Minstrel," in its difficult Spenserian stanza, remains without doubt its author's most individualistic work, and establishes him as the apostle of classical elegance among Scots poets of his day. Some of his odes, especially that on "Retirement," possess also much beauty and charm, but they are hardly to be distinguished from similar compositions of Gray and Collins. The last years of the poet, sad to say, were clouded by the darkest of sorrows. His wife, Mary, a daughter of Dr. James Dun, head-master of Aberdeen grammar-school, whom he had married in 1767, became insane. This was an affliction heavy enough in itself, but Beattie was also haunted by apprehensions of a similar fate for his two sons. These, happily, were un- realized, but the elder of the two, a youth of such brilliant promise that he was appointed professor to assist his father at the early age of nineteen, was cut off on the very threshold of his career by another malady, and the younger died not long afterwards. Under his threefold sorrow Beattie gave way to the last three of his life despair ; years were passed in hopeless solitude, and under an attack of paralysis he finally succumbed. In 1806 Beattie's life was written by Sir William Forbes, and in 1810 his complete poems were printed by Chalmers in his colossal edition of the poets.