'Let us for a moment review the village as it was in external and moral respects in the days of Burns. First, in a central situation, stood its old barn-like church, surrounded by a burialground, full, as usual, of flat and upright monuments-the scene of those prelections which the poet has described in his Holy Fair. Close by are the remains of the ancient priory, consisting of little besides an old dismantled tower, beside which was planted the neat mansion of Gavin Hamilton the writer. He is a pleasantnatured man, with a young family rising around him. In his little business-room will be found one or two young scapegrace clerks, great cronies of Burns; one of them his correspondent, John Richmond. If you take your stand in the kirk-yard, you see into Gavin's garden in one direction; in another, you see the back of Nanse Tinnock's change-house-the resort of yillcaup commentators during intervals of sermon, and the place in which Burns offered to drink the premier's health nine times a week, provided he would save aqua-vitæ from fiscal oppression. Nanse is a true ale-wife-quiet, civil, discreet, and no tale-teller. She would not blab even about Burns, but insisted to the end of her life that he had indulged very little in her house. In another direction, opposite the principal entrance to the church-yard, runs off a street called the Cowgate, in which Jeanie Armour lives. Here we see facing us a little white-faced inn of two stories-the Whitefoord Arms-kept by one John Dove or Dow; perhaps a greater haunt of the Mossgiel bard than Nansie's. Him Burns consigns to fame through the medium of a burlesque epitaph, no doubt presenting a tolerably just view of John's character :— ON JOHN DOVE, INNKEEPER, MAUCHLINE. Here lies Johnny Pigeon; Wha e'er desires to ken, To some other warl' Maun follow the carl, For here Johnny Pigeon had nane! Strong ale was ablution Small beer persecution, A dram was memento mori; But a full-flowing bowl Was the joy of his soul, And port was cclestial glory. 'In a good-looking shop in one of the streets of Mauchline, would have been found James Smith, a clever, little, dark-complexioned fellow, of bright social powers, and much sense and acuteness. To him Burns has cleaved like a brother, and many an evening do they spend together. Then, amongst the "characters," we have Poosie Nansie-a beldame who keeps a lodginghouse for vagrants. She is attended by a strange girl in the relation of daughter-yclept Racer Jess-who has run races for wagers, and is sometimes employed, on account of her speed of foot, in carrying messages throughout the country. Burns, Smith, and Richmond, are not above enjoying the odd scenes presented in Poosie Nansie's hotel, where wretches passing before the world for maimed and blind, recover the use of limbs and senses, and compensate in a hearty supper for all the privations and contumelies which they suffer in their exoteric character by day. Wild intemperance and frantic merriment, mingled with frightful quarrels and broils, distinguish this scene of low life-which, nevertheless, is a scene not below the regard of one who finds a human heart beating even in the worst of his kind. Holy Willie, too, we may be sure, supplies in his canting language and sordid overreaching habits abundant matter of remark to Burns and his friends. There is a zealot of a different stamp-James Humphry by name, a working-man, but the very type of a theological Scottish villager-a critic of sermons, a meddler with ministers, a pertinacious long-tongued disputant about texts-in short, the "noisy polemic" whom Burns has immortalised in an epitaph. He, we cannot doubt, must have afforded food for many a merry remark. The "unco guid" generally would be of course frequently canvassed in all the bearings of their characters-great joy would be felt when their decent robes gave way in aught, shewing the unclean heart beneath. The more notedly self-indulgent, who only kept up a tolerable face of decency before society, if more mildly treated, would at least supply abundant themes of grotesque narration. Such the place, and such the persons, now forming the drama of life in which the poet moved, himself a phenomenon of no common kind, a subject of terror and aversion to many, on account of his imputed "wildness" and latitudinarianism, while with others he was as much an object of affection and admiration because of his generous heart, his immense powers of wit, and the wonderful productions of his Muse.' This imperfect sketch may serve as generally introductory to his poems, The Jolly Beggars, The Epistle to James Smith, The Holy Fair, and some others. THE JOLLY BEGGARS: A CANTATA. RECITATIVO. When lyart leaves bestrew the yird, When hailstanes drive wi bitter skyte In hoary cranreuch drest; Ae night at e'en a merry core In Poosie Nansie's held the splore, First, niest the fire, in auld red rags, And aye he gies the tozie drab The tither skelpin' kiss, While she held up her greedy gab Ilk smack still, did crack still, An iron plate, used in Scottish cottages for baking cakes over the fire. gray-earth impulse hoar-frost vagrant odd tipsy 2 The Scottish beggars used to carry a large wooden dish for the reception of any alms which took the shape of food. The same utensil seems to have once been (if it is not so still) a part of the accoutrements of a continental beggar. When the revolted Netherlanders, in the sixteenth century, assumed the character of Les Gueue, or the Beggars, a beggar's wooden cup was one of their insignia. 3 A cadger is a man who travels the country with a horse or ass, carrying two panniers loaded with various merchandise for the country-people.-CROMEK. AIR. TUNE-Soldiers' Joy. I am a son of Mars, who have been in many wars, My 'prenticeship I past where my leader breathed his last, I lastly was with Curtis, among the floating-batteries, Lal de daudle, &c. 3 And now though I must beg with a wooden arm and leg, I'm as happy with my wallet, my bottle and my callet, Lal de daudle, &c. What though with hoary locks I must stand the winter shocks, Lal de daudle, &c. RECITATIVO. He ended; and the kebars sheuk, While frighted rattons backward leuk, And seek the benmost bore; rafters innermost The battle-ground in front of Quebec, where Wolfe fell victoriously, September 1759. 2 El Morro, the castle which defends the entrance to the harbour of Santiago or St Jago, a small island near the southern shore of Cuba. It is situated on an eminence, the abutments being cut out of the limestone rock. Logan's Notes of a Tour, &c. Edinburgh, 1838. In 1762, this castle was stormed and taken by the British, after which the Havana was surrendered, with spoil to the value of three millions. The destruction of the Spanish floating-batteries during the famous siege of Gibraltar in 1782-on which occasion the gallant Captain Curtis rendered the most signal service-is the heroic exploit here referred to.'-Motherwell. 4 George Augustus Elliot, created Lord Heathfield for his admirable defence of Gibraltar during a siege of three years. Born 1717, died 1790. A fairy fiddler frae the neuk, AIR. TUNE-Soldier Laddie. I once was a maid, though I cannot tell when, Sing, Lal de lal, &c. The first of my loves was a swaggering blade, Sing, Lal de lal, &c. But the godly old chaplain left him in the lurch, Full soon I grew sick of my sanctified sot, Sing, Lal de lal, &c. But the peace it reduced me to beg in despair, Sing, Lal de lal, &c. And now I have lived-I know not how long, But whilst with both hands I can hold the glass steady, Sing, Lal de lal, &c. RECITATIVO. Poor Merry Andrew in the neuk, wench staggered Syne tuned his pipes wi' grave grimace. |