The ruffian frown'd, and stood aghast, On this drooping flower, whose slender form, Too gentle for the warring storm, And scenes like these which round her pass'd. Her head grew giddy, bodings wild Throbb'd quickly through her maddening brain; My husband!—then she cried, my child! In heaven alone our hopes remain. While lashing waves their fury spent, She mark'd the ruffian's dire intent, Who open'd the storm-beat grating wide, Howling the craggy rocks among. She started-shriek'd-'twas but a dream! EDITOR. NURSERY CHANT.-LOGIE O' BUCHAN. 177 In the NURSERY CHANT. gowany meadow there Fine flowers in the valley; grows a grove, And a bonny bird sings frae the boughs above, His lightsome trillings of glee were heard, By the tod beeking lown in the greeny sward, The bird lap down on the bloomy breer, Fine flowers in the valley; Nor thought tod-lowrie lay sae near, Where the rose bent o'er the lily. Whase heart's blood sprents thy snaw-white bloom, Oh! the bird's that sang frae the boughs, perfume O LOGIE O' Buchan, O Logie the laird, EDITOR. He said, think na lang, lassie, though I gang awa; Sandy has ousen, has gear, and has kye; My daddie looks sulky, my minnie looks sour, I sit on my creepie, I spin at my wheel, Then haste ye back, Jamie, and bide na awa, The above song, upon the authority of Mr. Buchan of Peterhead, is the composition of Mr. George Halket, and was written by him while he was a Schoolmaster at Rathen, Aberdeenshire, about the year 1736. His poetry was chiefly Jacobitical, and long remained familiar amongst the peasantry in that quarter of the country: one of the best known of these, at the present day, is "Wherry, Whigs DE'IL TAK THE wars. 179 awa man. In 1746, Mr. Halket wrote a dialogue betwixt George II. and the Devil," which falling into the Duke of Cumberland's hands, while on his march to Culloden, he offered one hundred pounds reward for the person or the head of its author. Mr. Halket died in the year 1756. The Logie here mentioned, is in one of the adjoining parishes (Crimond), where Mr. Halket then resided; and the hero of the piece, was a James Robertson, gardener at the place of Logie. The original Ballad, commences thus: O woe to Kinmundy, Kinmundy the Laird, DE'IL TAK THE WARS. DE'IL tak the wars that hurried Billy from me, They made him captain, sure, to undo me! A thousand loons abroad will fight him, Day and night I did invite him, To stay at home from sword and gun. I used alluring graces, With many kind embraces, Now sighing, then crying, tears dropping fall; Preferr'd to war's alarms, By love grown mad, without the help of God, I washed and patched to make me look provoking, For a new gown, too, I paid muckle money, My petticoat I spotted, Fringe, too, with thread I knotted, Lace shoes, and silk hose garter'd full o'er knee; To Billy these are nought; Who rode to towns, and rifled with dragoons, In one of Walsh the London Music-seller's early publications, about the year 1700, entitled, " A Collection of the Choicest Songs and Dialogues, composed by the most eminent masters of the age," &c. the foregoing Song occurs, and is thus introduced upon the reader's notice: "De'il tak the wars," a Song, in A Wife for any Man,' the words by Mr. Thomas Durffey, set to music by Mr. Charles Powell, sung by Mrs. Cross, and exactly engraved by Mr. Thomas Cross." &c. In turning over an old MS. collection of Scottish airs, in our possession, we find one of them entitled, "Foul fa' the wars,” which inclines us to think, that some earlier Song than the foregoing, perhaps of Scottish extraction, has been picked up by Durfey, and altered to what we now find it. Tom Durfey (as he usually is styled) was a facetious English writer, born, according to one authority, in France, and by another in Exeter. He was author of several Comedies, besides numerous Poems and Songs, published betwixt 1672 and 1721. A large collection of which, in 1719, were printed in 6 volumes, 12mo. under the title of " Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy." He died in the year 1723. |