NITHSDALE'S WELCOME HAME. I. THE noble Maxwells and their powers And they'll gae bigg Terreagle's towers, And they declare Terreagle's fair, II. Tho' stars in skies may disappear, So dawning day has brought relief— The Maxwells were once the most powerful family in all the south of Scotland: even within the memory of persons yet alive, seventy gentlemen of that name possessed fine mansions and fair estates in Dumfries-shire and Galloway. The family rose on the fall of the great house of Douglas: a feud with the Annandale Johnstons cost them three earls: the wars of Charles and his parliament were very injurious-the rebellion of 1716 deprived them of the title-and the truly noble name is no longer numbered with our nobility. Terreagles-house stands at the foot of a fine range of green and lofty hills : it was built in the days of the Poet, and to this the song alludes. A song of a ruder sort concerning "The Maxwell" is not unknown to the peasantry. The rustic rhymer has imagined a female domestic of the family coming to Nithsdale with the tidings of the earl's escape from the Tower: the joy of the tenantry knows no bounds "We'll sell all our corn, cummer, Syne will we a' our bear, And send to our leal lord All our hained gear. "Make the piper blaw, cummer, And gar the lads and lasses baith "We'll a' be glad, cummer, We'll a' be glad, And sing the Stuart's back again, To put the Whigs mad." AS I WAS A-WANDERING. Tune-" Rinn Meudial mo Mhealladh." I. As I was a-wand'ring ae midsummer e'enin', The pipers and youngsters were making their game; Amang them I spied my faithless fause lover, Which bled a' the wounds o' my dolour again. Weel since he has left me, may pleasure gae wi' him ; I may be distress'd, but I winna complain; I flatter my fancy I may get anither, My heart it shall never be broken for ane. II. I couldna get sleeping till dawin for greetin', The tears trickled down like the hail and the rain : Had I na got greetin', my heart wad a broken, For, oh! love forsaken's a tormenting pain. III. Although he has left me for greed o' the siller, Than ever hae acted sae faithless to him. I flatter my fancy I may get anither, My heart it shall never be broken for ane. The air to which these affecting words were written is good old Highland, and the title means," My love did deceive me." It was found by Burns during his last northern tour, and found-as all Gaelic melodies areaccompanied by verse. The original was rendered into English by an Inverness-shire lady, and from her version he made these stanzas. They were printed in the fourth volume of the Musical Museum: Fraser, not aware perhaps that the tune was in Johnson, introduced it into his collection of original Highland airs, with an intimation that he had preserved it in all probability from perishing. No doubt many sweet old airs, and many noble old oral verses, are known about the north "in mainland and isle." With every old man that dies something perishes which we would gladly remember. BESS AND HER SPINNING-WHEEL. Tune-" The sweet lass that lo'es me." I. O LEEZE me on my spinning-wheel, II. On ilka hand the burnies trot, And meet below my theekit cot; The scented birk and hawthorn white, Across the pool their arms unite, Alike to screen the birdie's nest, And little fishes' caller rest: The sun blinks kindly in the biel', Where blithe I turn my spinning-wheel. |