And fo my fervants on that morn
The corpfe to bury foon were bound;
Crying, Alas! like men forlorn,

And feemed for forrow to fall down.
The corpfe they cunningly conveyed,

And made the bell aloud be rung;
And money to the prieft they paid,

And fervice for my foul was fung.
Which done, they tidings ftrait did bring
Unto King Henry, I was dead;
Chrift have his foul, then faid the King,
For fure he should have loft his head.
If he up to the court had come,

I promised had fo, by St. Paul,
But fince God did prevent our doom,
Almighty Chrift forgive his faul.
To manfion mine, I came at last,

By journeys nimbly, all by night;
And now two years or more are past

Since openly I came in fight.

No wight did know but I was dead

Save my three fervants and my wife;
Now am I start up in this ftead,

And come again from death to life,
So faid, the lords and knights of fame,

From laughing loud could not refrain;
To hear his Gando, had good game,

And of his welfare all were fain.
Whofe policy they had perceived,

And oftentimes his truth had tried,
Which was the cause fo fore they craved,
This Heron grave to be their guide.

The notes which Mr. Lambe, the Editor, has annexed to this poem are copious and mifcellaneous; in many places both entertaining and inftructive. Well skilled in the ancient Anglo-Saxon language, a confiderable portion of which remains in ufe in the North, he is a more competent judge of many obfolete expreffions in Shakespeare than any of his learned fouthern commentators.

As there is nothing, fays he, which we are fo forward to give As advice; the interpreters, and enraptured admirers of Shakespeare must allow me to recommend to them a feven years refidence on the north fide of the Tweed; in which time, if they are diligent, they may acquire a competent knowledge of the old English tongue.'

In the appendix to thefe notes there is an old Scotch fong on the battle of Floddon, which, for its genuine fimplicity and the truly plaintive fpirit of elegy, excels every thing of the kind we have met with:

8

I. I have

I.

I have heard of a lilting, at our ewes milking,
Laffes a lilting, before the break of day;
But now there's a moaning, on ilka green loaning,
That our braw forresters are a' wede away.

II.

At boughts, in the morning, nae blyth lads are scorning ;
The laffes are lonely, dowie, and wae;

Nae daffin, nae gabbin, but fighing, and fabbing;
Ilka ane lifts her leglen, and hies her away.
III.

At e'en at the gloming, nae fwankies are roaming,
Mong ftacks, with the laffes, at bogle to play;
But ilka ane fits dreary, lamenting her deary,

The flowers of the forest that are a' wede away.
IV.
At harreft, at the shearing, nae youngsters are jeering,
The banfters are runkled, lyart, and grey.
At a fair, or a preaching, nae wooing, nae fleeching,
Since our braw forrefters are a' wede away.

y.

O dool for the order, fent our lads to the border:
The English for anes by guile gat the day.
The flowers of the foreft, that ay fhone the foremost,
The prime of our land, lies cauld in the clay,
VI.
We'll hear nae mair lilting, at our ewes milking,
The women and bairns are dowie, and wae.
Sighing and moaning, on ilka green loaning,
Since our braw forrefters are a' wede away.
An Explanation of the Scotch words.

12

V. 6. Dowie, melancholy. Wae, forrowful.
V. 7. Daffin, waggery. Gabbin, prating pertly.

16

20

24

• Verfe 1. Lilting. Singing in a brifk lively manner, V. 3. Ilka. Every.

V. 3. Loaning. A little common, near country villages, whers Cows are milked.

V. 4. Braw. Brave. Finely apparelled.
V. 4.
A' wede. All cut away.
Shakespeare, Rich. 11.

•

A weeder out of his proud adverfaries.

·

V. 5. Bought. The little fold, where the ewes are inclosed at milking time.

V. 5. Scorning. Jeering the laffes about their sweethearts. To fcern is often now used in this sense in the N.

Sabbing,

Lobbing.

V. 8. Ilka ape, every one. Leglen, a milking-pail with one lug or handle.

6

The hafty, filent, and difconfolate departure of the milk-maids, is natural, and affecting.

V.9. Gloming. At even, in the twilight, or evening gloom.

V.99

• V. 9. Swankies. Young countrymen. This is an old English word, derived from the Saxon Swang, a country swain.

V. 10. Bogle. Hobgoblin, Spectre. Bogle Bo about the flack, is the diverfion of young folks in a stack-yard.

V. 11. Dreary. Sad.

• V. 14. Banstars. Binders up of the sheaves of corn.-Runkled, wrinkled. Lyart, hoary. The binders were now all old men. V. 15. Fleeching. Flattering.

·

V. 17. Dool. Grief.

V. 19. Ay. Ever; always.

V. 20. Cauld. Cold. There was hardly a genteel family in Scotland, but what loft one or more of their nearest relations in this battle.

V. 22. Bairns. Children.-The tune to this fong, called, The Flowers of the Forreft, is a pretty, melancholy one.'

We take leave of this entertaining book with our public thanks to Mr. Lambe for his diligence and information as an Editor.

ART. III. Poems by the Author of The Sentimental Sailor. 4to. 3 s. 6d. Boards. Dilly. 1774.

WH

HEN we expreffed some disappointment in the Sentimental Sailor, it appeared not to be occafioned fo much by the Author's want of ability, as by the infelicity of his choice of a fubject: for who, after Rouffeau, could write for St. Preux ?-In the three little poems before us he has been more fuccessful. The fubject of the firft is Arthur's Seat, a beautiful and commanding eminence in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, which affords a variety of profpect, and suggests many circumstances for reflection. The Author has here fhewn himfelf by no means deftitute of genius. His colouring is not languid, nor is his verfification fpiritlefs; neither are his defcriptions unanimated.

See Hawthornden's once vocal groves,
Where Efca's cliffs and giant coves,
When Drummond liv'd his fhadès among,
Refounded sweet with plaintive fong.

Mid fhelving banks and mazy bowers
See caftled Rollin's falling towers ;
No vulgar ruin-o'er the land
How thick the crouding bow-men ftand!
And hark! the echoing heights above
Refound; the Scottish standards move.
"Shake the fword, and found the shield,
"Now the proud oppreffors yield!
"Burft the bonds, and break the yoke"-
Thrice defcends the mighty stroke!

M. Review, vol. xlviii. p. 68.

• What

• What would the Mufe? forbear, forbear;
Nor dare to roufe the Scottish fpear;
Nor dare to dye the cryftal flood;
-This, alas! is British blood!

How grand, with circling mountains crown'd,
In amphitheatre around,
The varied profpect fwells, from where,
The fhades of woody Yefter near,
Slow rifing Soutra's heights appear!

• See Pentland huge, enormous pile!
Extenfive ranging many a mile;
Bleak, barren, brown, of dufky hue,
Oft interfpers'd with ftreaks of blue;
Whose tow'ring tops, and ample breast,
The failing clouds do oft arreft;
Where gullies deep intrench the fides,
And mournful juniper refides.

See lingring fnow-tracts white remain
On rugged Ochil's rough domain;
While, weftward far, the mountains high,
Like wreathing clouds, afcend the sky.

As tow'rs o'er many an Alpine hill
Valefian Gothard's fummit chill;
Whence Grifon fees Verbanus clear,
And Larius, Lombard-lakes, appear;
And eastward to Benacus long,
Raging in Virgilian fong:
So high Ben Lomond, capt with fnow,
Surveys the beauteous lakę below;
Where many a tufted island green,
And pendent woods adorn the scene;
And murmurs, with amufive roar,
The long, white, fhelving, pebbly shore;
And rufhing, pour a thoufand rills
From falient base of fractur'd hills.

• Romantic height! thy ether keen
Infpiring pureft joy ferene,
Methinks I breathe! methinks I view
Expanded lakes of azure hue,
Whose broad cerulean mirrors bright,
Reflecting, gleam with filver light;
The folemn wood of founding pine;
The lowing herd on steep decline;
The ranging hills, like rampire tall,
Shelt'ring the winding valleys fmall;
Grotefque Ce Arftur's pendent peak,
Oft echoing wild with eagle's fhriek;
Glencroe's deep gloom !-this wide furvey,
(Return, my fond excurfive lay!}
From whence the ftraining eye can gain
The eastern fea, and the western main;

}

We

We leave for future bard to fing,
Hov'ring high on daring wing.'

In the above extract there is certainly ftrength of numbers, of painting, and of fancy. The fame may be faid of the beautiful lines occafioned by the introduction of Thomson:

• To ufher in the smiling years,
Nature's gentle bard appears!
Defcriptive Thomfon! on thy head
Every Muse sweet influence fhed.

• Ethereal mildnefs! while the Spring
Her chearful robe of green shall bring;
And foftens the relenting year;
And flowers with filken leaves appear;
And purple heath, and bloffom'd field,
Around their balmy fragrance yield;
And genial Nature fmiles, and gay
Salutes the rofy-footed May:
WHILE lofty Summer's fultry hour
Calls for cool fequefter'd bower;
And poet, negligently laid,
Haunts cryftal ftream, and fylvan fhade
And dashing cat'racts, foaming, fall;
And thunder rolls through airy hall;
And nimble lightnings flash; and round
Start the gloomy woods profound:
WHILE Autumn gilds, from regions bright,
The happy world with golden light;
And Libra weighs, ferene and clear,
In equal fcales, the falling year;
And woodlands raise their latest song;
And wand'rer weeps the leaves among,
When dying Nature feems to call,
Prepare, prepare my funeral !
WHILE Winter, wrapt in midnight-glooms,
Father of the tempeft, comes;
And calls his ruffian blafts, and reigns,
Ruthless tyrant! o'er the plains;
And roars the river down the dale,
Arrefted oft by icy gale;

And shakes the founding world defac'd ;
And rushes wild the watry wafte:

-WHILE rounding thus the varied year,
The circling feasons still appear;

So long shall last thy matchless song,
Gentleft of the tuneful throng!'

The fecond poem is entitled Elyfium, a Dream; a fubject which invited to exuberance of fancy, and every indulgence of poetical daring:

Who with Anacreon lyes fupine ?
While round their glowing temples twine,

Than