'Twas the few faithful ones who with Cameron were lying, Concealed 'mong the mist where the heath-fowl were crying, For the horsemen of Earlshall around them were hovering, And their bridle reins rang through the thin misty covering.

Their faces grew pale, and their swords were unsheathed, But the vengeance that darkened their brow was unbreathed;

With eyes turned to heaven in calm resignation,
They sang their last song to the God of Salvation.

The hills with the deep mournful music were ringing,
The curlew and plover in concert were singing;
But the melody died 'mid derision and laughter,

As the host of ungodly rushed on to the slaughter.

Though in mist and in darkness and fire they were shrouded,

Yet the souls of the righteous were calm and unclouded.
Their dark eyes flashed lightning as, proud and unbending,
They stood like the rock which the thunder is rending.
The muskets were flashing, the blue swords were gleaming,
The helmets were cleft, and the red blood was streaming,
The heavens grew black, and the thunder was rolling,
When in Wellwood's dark muirlands the mighty were
falling.

When the righteous had fallen, and the combat was ended,
A chariot of fire through the dark cloud descended ;
Its drivers were angels on horses of whiteness,
And its burning wheels turned on axles of brightness.
A seraph unfolded its door bright and shining,
All dazzling like gold of the seventh refining,
And the souls that came forth out of great tribulation,
Have mounted the chariot and steeds of salvation.

On the arch of the rainbow the chariot is gliding,
Through the path of the thunder the horsemen are riding;
Glide swiftly, bright spirits! the prize is before ye,
A crown never fading, a kingdom of glory!

Henry Scott Riddell (1797-1870), born in Eskdale, was bred a shepherd, but contriving to make out a course at Edinburgh University, served for a few years a chapel in the Roxburghshire parish of Cavers. He wrote on sheepfarming, Lays of the Ark, and many songs, some of which are still sung in Scotland-'Scotland Yet' (beginning 'Gae bring my guid auld harp ance mair'), a version of 'The Crook and Plaid,' and one or two others. Christopher North warmly praised 'When the Glen is all still;' a pithier lyric begins, 'Ours is the land of gallant hearts.'

Robert Gilfillan (1798–1850), the son of a Dunfermline weaver, was clerk to a wine-merchant in Leith, and afterwards collector of poor-rates there. His Songs passed through three editions in his lifetime; and an edition of his Works, with a Life by Anderson, appeared in 1851. The songs are marked by kindly feeling and smooth versification, and several of them have been well set to music.

The Exile's Song.

Oh, why left I my hame? Why did I cross the deep?

Oh, why left I the land

Where my forefathers sleep?

David

I sigh for Scotia's shore,
And I gaze across the sea,
But I canna get a blink
O' my ain countrie!
The palm-tree waveth high,
And fair the myrtle springs;
And, to the Indian maid,
The bulbul sweetly sings;
But I dinna see the broom
Wi' its tassels on the lea,
Nor hear the lintie's sang

O' my ain countrie!

Oh, here no Sabbath bell

Awakes the Sabbath morn, Nor song of reapers heard

Amang the yellow corn: For the tyrant's voice is here,

And the wail of slaverie; But the sun of freedom shines In my ain countrie! There's a hope for every woe,

And a balm for every pain, But the first joys o' our heart

Come never back again. There's a track upon the deep, And a path across the sea; But the weary ne'er return

To their ain countrie!

Macbeth Moir (1798–1851) was, above the signature of 'Delta' (rather the actual A), a frequent poetical contributor to Blackwood's Magazine, while he practised as a surgeon in his native town of Musselburgh, beloved by all who knew him. His best pieces are grave and tender; but he also wrote some lively jeux d'esprit and a humorous Scottish tale of the kailyard, The Autobiography of Mansie Wauch, which was reprinted from Blackwood in 1828, and is still constantly reissued and read in Scotland. Besides the Outlines of the Ancient History of Medicine (1831), a pamphlet on cholera, and memoirs of his friend Galt and some other notables, his other works are The Legend of Genevieve, with other Tales and Poems (1824), Domestic Verses (1843), and Sketches of the Poetical Literature of the Past Half-century (1851). He edited Mrs Hemans,

and contributed some four hundred articles to Blackwood. His Poetical Works, edited with a Memoir by Thomas Aird, were published in two volumes in 1852. Even his friend Aird admitted that in much of Delta's work fancy, feeling, and musical rhythm are more conspicuous than power or new thought.

When thou at Eve art Roaming.
When thou at eve art roaming

Along the elm-o'ershadowed walk,
Where fast the eddying stream is foaming

And falling down-a cataract,

'Twas there with thee I wont to talk ; Think thou upon the days gone by,

And heave a sigh.

When sails the moon above the mountains,
And cloudless skies are purely blue,
And sparkle in her light the fountains,
And darker frowns the lonely yew,
Then be thou melancholy too,
While pausing on the hours I proved
With thee, beloved.

When wakes the dawn upon thy dwelling,
And lingering shadows disappear,
As soft the woodland songs are swelling
A choral anthem on thine ear,

Muse, for that hour to thought is dear, And then its flight remembrance wings To bypast things.

To me, through every season, dearest ;
In every scene, by day, by night,
Thou, present to my mind appearest

A quenchless star, for ever bright;
My solitary, sole delight;
Where'er I am, by shore-at sea-

I think of thee!

Thomas Aird (1802–76) produced some poems showing a weird and powerful imagination, and some descriptive sketches of Scottish rural scenery and character. Born at Bowden in Roxburgh, he was educated at the University of Edinburgh, and in 1826 produced a tragedy, Martzoufle, with some other poems. He formed the acquaintance of Professor Wilson, 'Delta' Moir, and other contributors to Blackwood's Magazine; and in that periodical he published many of the poetical pieces collected into one volume in 1848. The Captive of Fez (1830) was a long narrative poem. Two volumes of prose sketches were called Religious Characteristics (1827) and The Old Bachelor in the Old Scottish Village (1848). The editing of a Conservative weekly newspaper, The Dumfries Herald, for over a quarter of a century (1835-63), carried on with zeal and vigour, left time for the writing of not a few poems, usually published in the Herald. He edited D. M. Moir's works, and prefixed a biography. And till ill-health came on him after 1852, his life glided on in a simple and happy tranquillity rare among poets. George Gilfillan's first Gallery of Literary Portraits took shape at his suggestion, and appeared for the most part in his paper; Christopher North, writing on Spenser, was largely guided by his judgment as a critic, often adopting Aird's very phrases. After a reading of the MS. of the Life of Sterling, submitted to him by his friend Carlyle, Aird said: 'It is very able and interesting; but it might have been as well to let the poor forlorn sheet-lightning die away in its cloud.' He retained Carlyle's friendship till his death, and Carlyle said that in Aird's poetry he found everywhere a healthy breath as of mountain breezes a native manliness, geniality, and veracity.' The longer poems are admittedly defective in construction. Aird's memory was revived in 1902 by centenary celebrations and memorials at Bowden and at Dumfries.

From The Devil's Dream on Mount Aksbeck.' Beyond the north where Ural hills from polar tempests run, A glow went forth at midnight hour as of unwonted sun; Upon the north at midnight hour a mighty noise was heard,

As if with all his trampling waves the Ocean were unbarred;

And high a grizzly Terror hung, upstarting from below, Like fiery arrow shot aloft from some unmeasured bow.

'Twas not the obedient seraph's form that burns before the Throne,

Whose feathers are the pointed flames that tremble to be gone:

With twists of faded glory mixed, grim shadows wove his wing;

An aspect like the hurrying storm proclaimed the Infernal King.

And up he went, from native might, or holy sufferance

given,

As if to strike the starry boss of the high and vaulted heaven.

Aloft he turned in middle air, like falcon for his prey, And bowed to all the winds of heaven as if to flee away; Till broke a cloud-a phantom host, like glimpses of a dream,

Sowing the Syrian wilderness with many a restless gleam: He knew the flowing chivalry, the swart and turbaned train,

That far had pushed the Moslem faith, and peopled well his reign:

With stooping pinion that outflew the Prophet's winged steed,

In pride throughout the desert bounds he led the phantom speed;

But prouder yet he turned alone, and stood on Tabor hill, With scorn as if the Arab swords had little helped his will:

With scorn he looked to west away, and left their train to die,

Like a thing that had awaked to life from the gleaming of his eye.

What hill is like to Tabor hill in beauty and in fame? There, in the sad days of his flesh, o'er Christ a glory

came;

And light outflowed him like a sea, and raised his shining brow;

And the voice went forth that bade all worlds to God's Beloved bow.

One thought of this came o'er the fiend, and raised his startled form,

And up he drew his swelling skirts, as if to meet the

storm.

With wing that stripped the dews and birds from off the boughs of Night,

Down over Tabor's trees he whirled his fierce distempered flight;

And westward o'er the shadowy earth he tracked his earnest way,

Till o'er him shone the utmost stars that hem the skirts of day;

Then higher 'neath the sun he flew above all mortal ken, Yet looked what he might see on earth to raise his pride

again.

He saw a form of Africa low sitting in the dust; The feet were chained, and sorrow thrilled throughout the sable bust.

The idol and the idol's priest he hailed upon the earth, And every slavery that brings wild passions to the birth. All forms of human wickedness were pillars of his fame, All sounds of human misery his kingdom's loud acclaim.

Exulting o'er the rounded earth again he rode with night, Till, sailing o'er the untrodden top of Aksbeck high and white,

He closed at once his weary wings, and touched the shining hill;

For less his flight was easy strength than proud unconquered will:

For sin had dulled his native strength, and spoilt the holy law

Of impulse whence the archangel forms their earnest being draw.

There is a Life of Aird by Jardine Wallace prefixed to the fifth edition of his works (1878). Many of Aird's letters to George Gilfillan have been printed in Watson's Memoir of Gilfillan (1892). The centenary of his birth was observed at Bowden and at Dumfries, where a portrait bust was erected.

Charles Neaves (1800-76), as Lord Neaves, maintained on the Scottish Bench the old alliance between law and literature. The son of a Forfar lawyer, he studied at Edinburgh, and rose through various professional appointments to be Lord Cockburn's successor as one of the judges of the Court of Session. He was a constant contributor to Blackwood in prose and verse; and some of his wittiest and most satirical poems, republished in Songs and Verses, Social and Scientific (1868), make good-humoured fun of Darwinism, Teetotalism, Stuart Mill on Mind and Matter,' and innumerable other questions of larger or smaller import. He also contributed articles on philological science, and published a volume on the Greek anthology, illustrated with verse translations.

Henry Cockburn (1779–1854), as a Scottish judge called Lord Cockburn, was born perhaps at Cockpen, but more probably in the Parliament Close of old Edinburgh. He entered the High School in 1787, and the University of Edinburgh in 1793. 'We were kept,' he says, 'about nine years at two dead languages, which we did not learn.' But Dugald Stewart's lectures 'were like the opening of the heavens ;' and a debating club brought him in contact with Jeffrey, Horner, and Brougham, from whom he imbibed Whig opinions. He was called to the Scottish Bar in 1800; and in 1807 his uncle, the all-powerful Lord Melville, appointed him an advocate depute - a nonpolitical post, from which, on political grounds, he 'had the honour of being dismissed' in 1810. He rose, however, to share with Jeffrey the leadership of the Bar, and with Jeffrey was counsel for three prisoners charged with sedition (1817-19). A zealous supporter, by pen as well as by tongue, of parliamentary reform, he became SolicitorGeneral for Scotland under the Grey Ministry in 1830; had the chief hand in drafting the Scottish

Reform Bill; in 1834 was made, as Lord Cockburn, a judge of the Court of Session, and in 1837 a lord of justiciary. He died at Bonally Tower, his beautiful home at the base of the Pentlands since his marriage in 1811, and was buried near Jeffrey in the Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh. He contributed articles-on legal subjects mainly to the Edinburgh Review, and was author of the admirable Life of Jeffrey (1852), and of four posthumous works-Memorials of his Time (1856); Journal, 1831-44 (2 vols. 1874); Circuit Journeys (1888); and Trials for Sedition in Scotland (2 vols. 1888). The Memorials has from the first been accepted as the most authentic, vivid, genial, and entertaining account of Edinburgh life, manners, and personages in the early nineteenth century.

Edinburgh Society.

There was far more coarseness in the formal age than in the free one. Two vices especially, which have been long banished from respectable society, were very prevalent, if not universal, among the whole upper ranks-swearing and drunkenness. Nothing was more common than for gentlemen who had dined with ladies, and meant to rejoin them, to get drunk. To get drunk in a tavern seemed to be considered as a natural, if not an intended, consequence of going to one. Swearing was thought the right, and the mark, of a gentleman. And, tried by this test, nobody who had not seen them could now be made to believe how many gentlemen there were. Not that people were worse-tempered then than now. They were only coarser in their manners, and had got into a bad style of admonition and dissent. The naval chaplain jus'ified his cursing the sailors because it made them listen to him; and Braxfield [the Scottish judge] apologised to a lady whom he damned at whist for bad play by declaring that he had mistaken her for his wife. This odious practice was applied with particular offensiveness by those in authority towards their inferiors. In the army it was universal by officers towards soldiers, and far more frequent than is now credible by masters towards servants.

The prevailing dinner was about three o'clock. Two o'clock was quite common, if there was no company. Hence it was no great deviation from their usual custom for a family to dine on Sundays between sermons'that is, between one and two. The hour in time, but not without groans and predictions, became four, at which it stuck for several years. Then it got to five, which, however, was thought positively revolutionary; and four was long and gallantly adhered to by the haters of change as the good old hour.' At last even they were obliged to give in, but they only yielded inch by inch, and made a desperate stand at half-past four. Even five, however, triumphed, and continued the average polite hour from (I think) about 1806 or 1807 till about 1820. Six has at last prevailed, and half-an-hour later is not unusual. As yet this is the furthest stretch of London imitation, except in country houses devoted to grouse or deer.

The procession from the drawing-room to the diningroom was formerly arranged on a different principle from what it is now. There was no such alarming proceeding as that of each gentleman approaching a lady, and the two hooking together. This would have excited

as much horror as the waltz at first did, which never showed itself without denunciations of Continental manners by correct gentlemen and worthy mothers and aunts. All the ladies first went off by themselves in a regular row according to the ordinary rules of precedence. Then the gentlemen moved off in single file; so that when they reached the dining-room the ladies were all there, lingering about the backs of the chairs till they could see what their fate was to be. Then began the selection of partners, the leaders of the male line having the advantage of priority; and of course the magnates had an affinity for each other.

The dinners themselves were much the same as at present. Any difference is in a more liberal adoption of the cookery of France. Healths and toasts were

HENRY COCKBURN. After the Portrait by Raeburn.

special torments-oppressions which cannot now be conceived. Every glass during dinner required to be dedicated to the health of some one. This prandial nuisance was horrible, but it was nothing to what followed. For after dinner, and before the ladies retired, there generally began what were called 'rounds' of toasts, and, worst of all, there were 'sentiments.' These were short epigrammatic sentences expressive of moral feelings and virtues, and were thought refined and elegant productions. The glasses being filled, a person was asked for his or for her sentiment, when this or something similar was committed: May the pleasures of the evening bear the reflections of the morning,' or 'May the friends of our youth be the companions of our old age,' or 'Delicate pleasures to susceptible minds,' &c.

Early dinners begat suppers. But suppers are so delightful that they have survived long after dinners have become late. Indeed, this has immemorially been a favourite Edinburgh repast. How many are the reasons, how strong the associations, that inspire the last of the day's friendly meetings! Supper is cheaper than dinner; shorter, less ceremonious, and more

poetical. The business of the day is over; and its still fresh events interest. It is chiefly intimate associates that are drawn together at that familiar hour, of which night deepens the sociality. If there be any fun or heart or spirit in a man at all, it is then, if ever, that it will appear. So far as I have seen social life, its brightest sunshine has been on the last repast of the day.

As to the comparative religiousness of the present and the preceding generation, any such comparison is very difficult to be made. Religion is certainly more the fashion than it used to be. There is more said about it; there has been a great rise, and consequently a great competition, of sects; and the general mass of the religious public has been enlarged. On the other hand, if we are to believe one half of what some religious persons themselves assure us, religion is now almost extinct. My opinion is that the balance is in favour of the present time. And I am certain that it would be much more so if the modern dictators would only accept of that as religion which was considered to be so by their devout fathers. (From the Memorials.)

Dean Ramsay, unofficially Edward Bannerman Burnett Ramsay (1793-1872), was born in Aberdeen, the fourth son of Alexander Burnett, Sheriff of Kincardineshire, who in 1806, succeeding to an uncle's estates, took the surname Ramsay, and was created a baronet. Educated at Durham and St John's College, Cambridge, he held two Somerset curacies 1816-24, and then removed to Edinburgh. In 1830 he became incumbent of St John's, in 1846 dean also of his diocese. The book with which his name will be always identified is the delightful Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character (1857; 22nd ed., with Memoir by Cosmo Innes, 1874). It forms a curious record of old times and manners fast disappearing; it furnishes a direct reply to jests such as those of Sydney Smith and Charles Lamb to the effect that the Scottish people have no humour; and, next perhaps to the Waverley Novels, has done more than any one book to make Scottish customs, phrases, and traits of character familiar to Englishmen at home and abroad. Spite of his association with what is practically the national jest-book, Dean Ramsay was an energetic, revered, and beloved clergyman, as much esteemed by Presbyterians as in his own communion; and he wrote a Life of the great Presbyterian preacher Dr Chalmers, as well as books on Faults in Christian Believers, Pulpit Table-talk, and The Christian Life.

Scottish Nationality.

There is no mistaking the national attachment so strong in the Scottish character. Men return after long absence in this respect unchanged; whilst absent, Scotchmen never forget their native home. In all varieties of lands and climates their hearts ever turn towards the 'land o' cakes and brither Scots.' Scottish festivals are kept with Scottish feeling on Greenland's icy moun tains' or 'India's coral strand.' I received an amusing account of an ebullition of this patriotic feeling from my late noble friend the Marquis of Lothian, who met with it when travelling in India. He happened to

arrive at a station upon the eve of St Andrew's Day, and received an invitation to join a Scottish dinnerparty in commemoration of old Scotland. There was a great deal of Scottish enthusiasm. There were seven sheep-heads (singed) down the table; and Lord Lothian told me that after dinner he sang with great applause 'The Laird o' Cock pen.'

Love of country must draw forth good feeling in men's minds, as it will tend to make them cherish a desire for its welfare and improvement. To claim kindred with the honourable and high-minded, as in some degree allied with them, must imply at least an appreciation of great and good qualities. Whatever, then, supplies men with a motive for following upright and noble conduct-whatever advances in them a kindly benevolence towards fellow-countrymen in distress, will always exercise a beneficial effect upon the hearts and intellects of a Christian people; and these objects are, I think, all more or less fostered and encouraged under the influence of that patriotic spirit which identifies national honour and national happiness with its own.

No

I desire to preserve peculiarities which I think should be recorded, because they are national, and because they are reminiscences of genuine Scottish life. doubt these peculiarities have been deeply tinged with the quaint and quiet humour which is more strictly characteristic of our countrymen than their wit. And, as exponents of that humour, our stories may often have excited some harmless merriment in those who have appreciated the real fun of the dry Scottish character. That, I trust, is no offence. I should never be sorry to think that, within the limits of becoming mirth,' I had contributed, in however small a degree, to the entertainment and recreation of my countrymen. I am convinced that every one, whether clergyman or layman, who adds something to the innocent enjoyment of human life has joined in a good work, inasmuch as he has diminished the inducement to vicious indulgence. God knows there is enough of sin and of sorrow in the world to make sad the heart of every Christian man.

(From the Preface to the Reminiscences.)

Robert Carruthers (1799-1878), one of the authors of the first edition of this work, was a Dumfriesshire farmer's son, and was apprenticed to a bookseller in Dumfries, the town where he was born; but after his apprenticeship he became a teacher at Huntingdon, and for the corporation wrote a History of Huntingdon (1824). He had also published a selection from Milton's prose when in 1828 he was appointed editor of the Inverness Courier, and showed how liberal principles, northern news, and local interests might be satisfactorily dealt with and yet leave room for a long and frequent series of articles of literary, antiquarian, and social importance; he brought out' Hugh Miller in his columns. In 1853 Carruthers issued his principal book-an edition of Pope's works, with a fuller Life than had yet appeared. A new edition of the Life, issued in 1857, incorporated Dilke's discoveries and corrections, and remained the standard one till the publication of that by Mr Courthope in the great edition begun by Mr Elwin (1871-89). Dr Robert

Chambers and Mr Carruthers were between them responsible for the first edition of this Cyclopædia of English Literature, planned and edited by Dr Robert Chambers, and published in 1842-44Carruthers, who was specially entrusted with the articles on the poets in the first edition, took entire charge of the revised editions in 1858 and 1876; and many of the articles in the present new edition are based on his. For the same publishers Carruthers edited a 'Household' Shakespeare (1861-63). He contributed to Chambers's Journal, the North British Review, and the eighth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica; and he wrote Lives of Falconer, Gray, and James Montgomery for editions of their poetry. His scholarly work earned him an Edinburgh LL.D. in 1871.

William and Robert Chambers, the publishers of this work, were the sons of a Peebles cotton manufacturer, whose commercial unsuccess early threw the boys on their own resources. William, the elder brother, had keen business instincts, and was incidentally also a writer of books; Robert, who became also a publisher, had strong literary impulses, varied intellectual sympathies and accomplishments, and by his strenuous life-work proved a pioneer in more than one department of research. William Chambers (1800-83) was in 1814 apprenticed to a bookseller in Edinburgh, and in 1819 started business for himself, to bookselling afterwards adding printing. From childhood he was an industrious reader. Between 1825 and 1830 he wrote the Book of Scotland, and, in conjunction with his brother Robert, a Gazetteer of Scotland. In 1832 he started Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, six weeks in advance of the Penny Magazine published by Charles Knight for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; and soon thereafter he united with Robert in founding the business of W. & R. Chambers, the best known of whose many publications are, besides the Journal and a numerous series of educational works, a Miscellany (20 vols.), Papers for the People (12 vols.), the Information for the People (2 vols. 1833; new editions in 1857, &c.), the Cyclopædia of English Literature (2 vols. 1842-44 ; new ed. 1901-3), and Chambers's Encyclopædia, ‘a dictionary of universal knowledge' (10 vols. 1859–68 ; new ed. 1888-92). Lord Provost of Edinburgh in 1865-69, he was associated with important civic improvements; and he carried out at his own cost a restoration of St Giles' Cathedral. He was made LL.D. of Edinburgh, and just before his death had been offered a baronetcy. Besides many contributions to the Journal, he wrote about a dozen separate works, of which a History of Peeblesshire (1864) and an autobiographical Memoir of his brother and himself (1872) were the most important. In receiving from his hands the freedom of the city of Edinburgh in 1867, Lord Beaconsfield (then Mr Disraeli) said, after speaking of the promotion of sound literature, 'I do not think that