MACPHERSON'S FAREWELL. Tune-"M'Pherson's Rant." I. FAREWELL, ye dungeons dark and strong, The wretch's destinie! Macpherson's time will not be long On yonder gallows-tree. Sae rantingly, sae wantonly, Sae dauntingly gaed he; He play'd a spring, and danc'd it round, II. Oh, what is death but parting breath?— On many a bloody plain I've dar'd his face, and in this place I scorn him yet again! III. Untie these bands from off my hands, And there's no a man in all Scotland, But I'll brave him at a word. IV. I've liv'd a life of sturt and strife ; I die by treacherie : It burns my heart I must depart, And not avenged be. V. Now farewell light-thou sunshine bright, And all beneath the sky! May coward shame distain his name, The wretch that dares not die! Sae rantingly, sae wantonly, Sae dauntingly gaed he; He play'd a spring, and danc'd it round, Inverness and Banff alike claim the honour of furnishing scene and subject for this very vehement and daring song. It owes little save the name to the ballad published in Herd, and not much to the traditional chant still remembered in the north.-" Macpherson's Lament," says Scott," was a well-known song many years before the Ayrshire Bard wrote these additional verses, which constitute its principal merit. This noted freebooter was executed at Inverness about the beginning of the last century. When he came to the fatal tree, he played the tune to which he has bequeathed his name, upon a favourite violin and holding up the instrument he offered it to any one of his clan who would under : take to play the tune over his body at his lyke-wake. As none answered, he dashed it to pieces on the executioner's head, and flung himself from the ladder." The Banff tradition relates that Macpherson was chief of a branch of the clan Chattan: a freebooter by choice or chance, and of unequalled strength and courage. He imagined, as he descended with his followers from the mountains, that he was but asserting the independence of his wild tribe; and believed, when he harried the vales, that he was taking a lawful prey. Macduff, of Braco, was not of this opinion: he resisted the spoliation of his lands, and, in several encounters with Macpherson, ascertained that stratagem was more likely to be successful than open force. Having heard that the freebooter was at the fair of Keith, with only one companion, he instantly entered the town, singled him out, and attacked him in the market-place. Macpherson fought with the most desperate courage-several fell by his hand, and he made his way through all opposition to the churchyard, but, stumbling as he was defending himself, was overpowered and captured, conveyed to Banff, and condemned to die. His execution was attended by those romantic circumstances related by Scott; his body was buried on the Gallow-hill, beneath the gallows-tree. “The sword and shield of Macpherson," says an ingenious correspondent, Alexander M'Innes, are deposited in the Earl of Fife's armoury at Duff-House, near Banff, and are in a state of tolerable preservation, though it is evident they had undergone much tear and wear while in the hands of their original owner. The sword is double-handed, six feet in length, and waved or scalloped along the edge of the blade, which is about the breadth of a common scythe. The shield is composed of wood, bull's-hide, and brass nails, with the latter of which it is curiously ornamented. Such a ponderous weapon required a powerful man—and such, indeed, he was; for, when his grave was opened some years ago, his bones exceeded in strength those common to nature. The shield is hacked and dinted in several places; one or two bullets, too, have passed through the thick studding and the massive wood, and are lodged in the outside coating of leather." Some of the verses of the local ballad are interesting "Old Braco Duff, in rage and wrath, First laid a snare for me; But if I live to bruik my life, "Untie these bands frae off my hands, "But vengeance I did never wreak, When power was in my hand; An' you, dear friends, no vengeance seek- "Forgive the man whose rage bereaves "My father was a gentleman, O place me in the field like him- It seems perfectly certain that, into whatever counties this freebooter carried his depredations, his final exit took place at Banff. His indictment is still in existence: besides, be it remembered that Inverness is the land of the Macphersons, and a Highland saying avers that its jail could never hold a prisoner belonging to a clan! BRAW LADS OF GALLA WATER. Tune-"Galla Water." CHORUS. Braw, braw lads of Galla Water; I'll kilt my coats aboon my knee, And follow my love thro' the water. I. SAE fair her hair, sae brent her brow, Sae bonny blue her een, my dearie ; Sae white her teeth, sae sweet her mou', The mair I kiss she's ay my dearie. II. O'er yon bank and o'er yon brae, O'er yon moss amang the heather; I'll kilt my coats aboon my knee, And follow my love thro' the water. |