The Poetical Works of Thomas Aird
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.'»'}'''i\'.f'.:'''l-\:'.~ THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES nm LORD ni.e88 thee, and keep Tiiefii THE LORD MAKE HIS FAOB TO 8HINC UPON THEE; THE LORD LIFT UP HI8 OOUNTENANOB WON THEE, AND GIVE THEE PHAOE. NUMBERS, VI. 24, S*. yHOMAS ^IRD THE POETICAL-^. WORKS OF THOMAS AIRD FIFTH EDITION WITH A MEMOIR BY THE REV. JARDINE WALLACE, B. A. WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON MDCCCLXXVIII A I? Ixfolt/': f,\\;-'i-7irt-l *:. CONTENTS. VI CONTENTS. FANCY, TO THE MEMORY OF A CITY PASTOR, A SUMMER DAY, .... THE CAPTIVE OF FEZ, . A WINTER HAY, .... OUR YOUNG PAINTER, . WASH THE FEET OF POOR OLD AGE, TO MONT WLANC, THE TRAGIC POEM OF WOLU, • THE YOUNG PHYSICIAN, t MY mother's GRAVE, . FLOWERS OF THE OLD SCOTTISH THISTLE- FLOWER the FIRST: MAID MARION, FLOWER THE SECOND: MAUDE OF RAVENTREE THE PROPHECY, . THE TRANSLATION OF BEAUTY, RECOVERY FROM SICKNESS, NEBUCHADNEZZAR, GRANDMOTHER, . THE LYRE, . A father's CURSE, A mother's BLESSING, MONOGRAPH OF A FRIEND, THE CHURCHYARD, THE OLD SOLDIER, THE shepherd's DOG, GENIUS, THE DEMONIAC, . SONG OF TIME AKD MAN, MEMOIR. Thomas Aird, author of the following Poems, was the son of James Aird and his wife, Isabella Paislqjr^ and was the second of nine children. He was born on the 28th of August 1802, in the parish of Bowden, Roxburghshire, under the shadow of the Eildon Hills, in the enchanted Border-land, close to the abbeys of Dryburgh and Melrose, which the genius of Scott has made for ever memorable. The Tweed, which he dearly loved, flows through the classic vale, and from the low the rising ground you see upon the horizon blue line of the Cheviot Hills and Flodden Field. The family of Aird belonged for generations to that substantial and independent class named Portioners, who cultivated their own land, held in feu of a neigh- bouring nobleman, and who frequently combined with this some other industrial employment. His of the parents, who professed the religious principles a vm MEMOIR. Anliburghcrs, were persons of admirable character and intelligence. They brought up their children anxiously in the fear of God, and enforced a careful, though somewhat strict observance of Sunday— " Such as grave livers do in Scotland use." Woe to the offender who betook himself to whistling on that day, or to vain whittling with his knife. Theirs was an and on week- orderly, yet happy home ; days, when lessons were over, the father would sing to the little circle some rare old Scotch song, while the kind, thrifty mother plied the spinning-wheel. It is said that a library containing some romances, wliich Thomas started in Bowden when a lad, was at first regarded with considerable suspicion by Mrs Aird. She was afraid of the seductive literature, and thought, besides, that it was apt to interfere unduly with the knitting and sewing of her daughters. But the good lady, stumbling by accident one day among the books upon * Thaddeus of Warsaw,' was so de- lighted with the tale, that not much more after that was said about the sin of novel-reading. The vener- able pair died each at the age of 86, having spent in married life and their sixty years together ; gifted son never ceased to revere the memory of those whose holy affection had guarded his youth from evil, and kept it pure. The following domestic scene, in the ' pages of the Old Bachelor,' is evidently drawn from MEMOIR. IX his father's home : "To see the old men, on a bright evening of the still Sabbath, in their light-blue coats and broad-striped waistcoats, sitting in their southern gardens on the low beds of camomile, with the Bible in their hands, their old eyes filled with mild serious- ness, blent with the sunlight of the sweet summer- tide, is one of the most pleasing pictures of human life. And many a time with profound awe have I seen the peace of their cottages within, and the sol- emn reverence of young and old, when some grey- haired patriarch has gathered himself up in his bed, and, ere he died, blessed his children." One feels disposed to regret that the good old race of Por- tioners, with their primitive customs and ^picturesque surroundings, are fast vanishing away, and that the little properties on which they lived in modest inde- pendence are now swallowed up and lost in the large ambitious estates and farms around : — " 111 fares the land, to hast'ning ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay." Thomas received his first lessons at his father's knee, and, like so many eminent men, was educated afterwards at those parish schools which have been for generations the just pride of Scotland. He showed his love of letters at an early age, by run- ning off one day to the teacher at Bowden, with his concealed about his and lie was so book person ; X MEMOIR. bent upon instruction, that his parents, in order to gratify him, took his elder brother from school, to fill the place of usefulness at home which he had vacated. After this he attended for a time the parish school of Melrose. A letter in rhyme, which was kept till worn to shreds by his surviving brother, James, was his first known attempt at verse-making. Thomas was no book-worm, however. He excelled in all outdoor in he used to sports, especially leaping ; and attribute the varicose veins and rheumatic pains from which he suffered mucli in manhood, to the violent athletic exercises of his youth. Indeed, the tattered clothes which his mother was obliged to repair every night, was the only cause of complaint which she could find in the generous boy, overflowing with health and spirit. As he grew older, shooting rabbits among the whins, and fishing in the Tweed, occasion- ally in the company of John Younger, the St Boswell's poet and essayist, were his favourite pastimes; and he delighted in wandering through the Eildon woods to watch the habits of birds and insects. His ex- cursions sometimes extended to AVilliamslee, the sweet pastoral farm of his uncle, Mr Andrew Paisley, near Innerleithen, and to the St Ronan's games, held annually in tliat \ icinity, where Professor Wilson and James Hogg, in the presence of the Earl of Traquair and a gallant company from the Forest, performed feats of strength and agility which far outstripped the MEMOIR. XI Flying Tailor of Ettrick. These were happy days, spent amid lovely scenes, and he often refers to them in his writings'&" : — " Oh to be a boy once more, Curly-headed, sitting singing 'Midst a thousand flowerets springing, In the sunny days of yore, In the sunny world remote, Witli feelings opening in their dew, And fairy wonders ever new, all And the budding quicks of thought ! Oil to be a boy, yet be From all my early follies free ! But were I skilled in prudent lore. The boy were then a boy no more." *' " " ! he in his old the Ah, yes says age ; seeking of wands and the of creels the saugh weaving ; expedi- tions for and haws and sloes the first of hips ; games boglie about the stacks, and the first coming of the fox-hounds to Eildon Hills, made my boyish Octobers peculiarly cheery."* Brothers and sisters were his companions on these joyous occasions— " Spilling rich laughter from their thriftless eyes," to use his own delightful words. He was always a great favourite with them, and sore were the hearts of the happy family when the day of parting came. In 1816 Aird went to reside in Edinburgh, which * Letter to his nephew, Mr T. Aird Smith, Riddlcton Hill, Roxburghshire, 23d October 1874. XU MEMOIR. for nearly twenty years became his second home. There he attended the University, and made the ac- quaintance of Thomas Carlyle, his hfelong friend and correspondent. He was a member of the Dialectic Society, and exchanged to the last literary com- munings and kindly regards with Lord Deas and others, his old combatants in debate. In the middle of his studies he resided for several months, as tutor, in the family of Mr Anderson, farmer of Crosscleugh, in Selkirkshire, close to the famous hostelry of Tibbie Shiel, the paradise of anglers and tourists. Here he frequently met with the Ettrick Shepherd, and grew as much attached as Wordsworth to the green braes of Yarrow and St Mary's Loch, the peaceful beauty of which lingered fondly in his memory till his dying hour. Aird was designed by his relatives for the ministry of the Church of Scotland, for which he always entertained a profound and patriotic attach- ment. Before quite completing his academic course, however, he changed his purpose, owing to a feeling of personal diffidence, and embraced the freedom of a literary life. The loss of Aird to the noble service of the Church may be to many a subject of regret, but those who knew the sensitive nature of the man can understand how he shrank from a position involv- ing so much prominence and responsibility. The quiet walks of authorship were more suited to his disposition, and there was a favourable opening at MEMOIR. XUl this time. The fame of Edinburgh as a seat of learning was altogether unprecedented. The press was pouring forth year by year the unrivalled works of the author of ' * the ' Re- Waverley ; Edinburgh view,' supported by Jeffrey, Brougham, Horner, Sydney Smith, and Cockburn, was carrying all before- ' ' it and Blackwood's was to start ; Magazine about on its brilliant career, under Wilson, Lockhart, Hogg, De Quincey, and a host of celebrated names.