I kissed her owre and owre again
Amang the rigs o' barley.

I locked her in my fond embrace;
Her heart was beating rarely:
My blessings on that happy place,
Amang the rigs o' barley!
But by the moon and stars so bright,
That shone that hour so clearly,
She aye shall bless that happy night
Amang the rigs o' barley!

I hae been blithe wi' comrades dear;
I hae been merry drinkin';
I hae been joyfu' gath'rin' gear;
I hae been happy thinkin':
But a' the pleasures e'er I saw,

Though three times doubled fairly That happy night was worth them a' Amang the rigs o' barley.

CHORUS.

Corn rigs, and barley rigs,

And corn rigs are bonnie:
I'll ne'er forget that happy night
Amang the rigs wi' Annie.

MONTGOMERY'S PEGGY.

TUNE- Gala Water.

Of a third ditty we have also some particulars. It was a more serious and durable affair than either of the preceding. The heroine was a young woman acting as a superior servant in the house of Mr. Montgomery of Coilsfield; hence she was called by Burns Montgomery's Peggy. The poet's acquaintance with her commenced in the same way as that of the Laird of Dumbiedykes with the lady whom he chose as his wife that is, by their sitting in the same seat in church. He himself tells us that he entered on a courtship, partly from a desire to show his skill in the writing of billets doux a kind of exercise in composition, of the dangers of which he, as an unreflecting poet, was of course quite unaware. By and by, as might have been expected, he came to write of the damsel in a somewhat fervent strain. When he at length began to make serious demonstrations, he found that the heart of Peggy had been for some time engaged to another, and it cost him, as he tells us, some heartaches to get quit of the affair.

ALTHOUGH my bed were in yon muir
Amang the heather, in my plaidie,
Yet nappy, happy would I be,

Had I my dear Montgomery's Peggy.

1 These particulars are from Mrs. Begg.

When o'er the hill beat surly storms,
And winter nights were dark and rainy,
I'd seek some dell, and in my arms
I'd shelter dear Montgomery's Peggy.

Were I a baron proud and high,

And horse and servants waiting ready, Then a' 'twad gie o' joy to me,

The barin't with Montgomery's Peggy.

SONG COMPOSED IN AUGUST.

TUNE-I had a horse, I had nae mair.

The Peggy of the following song (which belongs apparently to the year 1784) was, according to Burns's sister, Margaret Thomson, who had some years before been the object of a blazing passion, while Burns was at school at Kirkoswald.

Now westlin winds and slaught'ring guns
Bring autumn's pleasant weather;
The moorcock springs, on whirring wings,
Amang the blooming heather.

Now waving grain, wide o'er the plain,

Delights the weary farmer;

And the moon shines bright, when I rove at night To muse upon my charmer.

The partridge loves the fruitful fells;

The plover loves the mountains;
The woodcock haunts the lonely dells;
The soaring hern the fountains:
Through lofty groves the cushat roves,

The path of man to shun it;
The hazel-bush o'erhangs the thrush,
The spreading thorn the linnet.

Thus every kind their pleasure find,
The savage and the tender;

Some social join, and leagues combine;

Some solitary wander:
Avaunt, away! the cruel sway,
Tyrannic man's dominion;

The sportsman's joy, the murdering cry,
The fluttering gory pinion.

But Peggy, dear, the evening's clear,
Thick flies the skimming swallow;
The sky is blue, the fields in view,
All fading-green and yellow :
Come, let us stray our gladsome way,
And view the charms of nature;
The rustling corn, the fruited thorn,
And every happy creature.

We'll gently walk, and sweetly talk,

Till the silent moon shine clearly;

heron

wood pigeon

I'll grasp thy waist, and fondly prest,
Swear how I love thee dearly:
Not vernal showers to budding flowers,
Not autumn to the farmer,

So dear can be as thou to me,
My fair, my lovely charmer!1

INSCRIPTION ON THE TOMBSTONE OF WILLIAM BURNESS.

Он

ye whose cheek the tear of pity stains, Draw near with pious rev'rence and attend! Here lie the loving husband's dear remains, The tender father, and the gen'rous friend.

1 Mrs. Begg remembers, about the time of her brother's attachment to Jean Armour, seeing this song freshly written out amongst his papers, with the name "Jeanie" instead of "Peggy," and the word "Armour " instead of "charmer," at the end of the first and fifth verses. She therefore suspects that the poet has, through inadvertency, made a mistake in assigning this song to Miss Thomson. The present editor has not deemed himself justified on such a ground to reject so direct a statement of the poet himself. Perhaps he may have written the song for Miss Thomson, and only temporarily dethroned her name for the sake of a newer love. It seems next to impossible that Burns could have ever published the song with a change so calculated to debase its poetical value as the substitution of " Armour " for "charmer."