How have I trembled, when, at Tancred's stroke, Its gushing blood the gaping cypress pour'd! When each live plant with mortal accents spoke, And the wild blast upheav'd the vanish'd sword! How have I sat, when pip'd the pensive wind, To hear his harp by British Fairfax strung! Prevailing poet! whose undoubting mind Believ'd the magic wonders which he sung! Hence, at each sound, imagination glows! Hence, at each picture, vivid life starts here! Hence his warm lay with softest sweetness flows! Melting it flows, pure, murmuring, strong, and clear, And fills th' impassion'd heart, and wins th' harmonious ear! All hail, ye scenes that o'er my soul prevail; " Or o'er your mountains creep, in awful gloom! Then will I dress once more the faded bower, Where Jonsons sat in Drummond's classic shade; Or crop from Tiviotdale, each lyric flower, And mourn, on Yarrow's banks, where Willy's laid! Meantime, ye powers that on the plains which bore The cordial youth, on Lothian's plains attend! Three rivers in Scotland. + Vallies. Ben Jonson paid a visit on foot, in 1619, to the Scotch poet Drummond, at his seat of Hawthornden, within' four miles of Edinburgh. Barrow, it seems, was at the Elinburgh University, which is in the county of Lothian. Where'er Home dwells, on hill, or lowly moor, * The following exquisite Supplemental Stanzas to the foregoing Ode, will be found to commemorate some striking Scottish superstitions omitted by Col lins. They are the production of William Erskine, Esq. Advocate, and form a Continuation of the Address, by Collins, to the Author of Douglas, exhorting him to celebrate the traditions of Scotland. They originally appeared in the Edinburgh Magazine for April, 1788. "Thy muse may tell, how, when at evening's close, When, trembling, weak, she gains her cottage low, The wraith, or spectral appearance, of a person shortly to die, is a firm article in the creed of Sco'tish superstition Nor is it unknown in our sister kingdom. See the beautiful Lady Diana Rich.-Aubrey's Miscellanies, p. 89. Some one shall tell, while tears in torrents flow, That, just when twilight dimm'd the green hill side, Far in his lonely sheil her hapless shepherd died. "Let these sad strains to lighter sounds give place Bid thy brisk viol warble measures gay! For see! recall'd by thy resistless lay, Once more the Brownie shews his honest face. Hail, from thy wanderings long, my much lov'd sprite Thou friend, thou lover of the lowly, hail, Tell, in what realms thou sport'st thy merry night, Thou ply'dst the kindly task in years of yore?" The Brownie formed a class of beings, distinct in habit and disposition from the freakish and mischievous elves, He was meagre, shaggy, and wild in his appearance. Thus, Clealand, in his satire against the Highlanders, compares them to In the day time, he lurked in remote recesses of the old houses which he delighted to haunt; and, in the night, sedulously employed himself in discharg. "Then wake (for well thou canst) that wondrous lay ing any laborious task which he thought might be acceptable to the family, to whose service he had devoted himself. But, although, like Milton's lubber fiend, he loves to stretch himself by the fire,* he does not drudge from the hope of recompence. On the contrary, so delicate is his attachment, that the offer of reward, but particularly of food, infallibly occasions his disappearance for ever.§ -how the drudging goblin sweat, 3 And, stretch'd out all the chimney's length, And, crop-full, out of doors he flings, L'Allegro. 3 When the menials in a Scottish family protracted their vigils around the kitchen fire, Brownie, weary of being excluded from the midnight hearth, sometimes appeared at the door, seemed to watch their departure, and thus admonished them-"Gang a' to your beds, sirs, and dinna put out the wee grieshock (embers)." It is told of a Brownie, who haunted a border family, now extinct, that the lady having fallen un How starts the nurse, when for her lovely child, When from their hilly dens, at midnight's hour, Forth rush the airy elves in mimic state, And o'er the moonlight heath with swiftness scour : expectedly in labour, and the servant who was ordered to ride to Jedburgh for the sage femme, shewing no great alertness in setting out, the familiar spirit slipt on the great-coat of the lingering domes. tic, rode to the town on the laird's best horse, and returned with the midwife en croupe. During the short space of his absence, the Tweed, which they must necessarily ford, rose to a dangerous height. Brownie, who transported his charge with all the rapidity of the ghostly lover of Lenora, was not to be stopped by this obstacle. He plunged in with the terrified old lady, and landed her in safety where her services were wanted. Having put the horse into the stable where it was afterwards found in a woeful plight, he proceeded to the room of the servant, whose duty he had discharged; and, finding him just in the act of drawing on his boots, he administered to him a most merciless drubbing with his own horse. whip. Such an important service excited the gratitude of the laird; who, understanding that Brownie had been heard to express a wish to have a green coat, ordered a vestment of that colour to be made, and left in his haunts. Brownie took away the green coat, but never was seen more. We may suppose, that tired of his domestic drudgery, he went in his new livery to join the fairies. |