affections of devotion, magnanimity, generofity, fide lity, parental affection, and love, have formed univerfally the favourite object of poetical effufions; yet the tones which these affume, are so infinitely diverfified, by the varying circumstances of civil fociety, the modes of thinking that have incidentally prevailed for,a time; and the language in which they have been expreffed, has been fo various, that these productions, while they exhibit the most undeniable proofs, that the hu man mind is radically the fame in all nations, afford a like decifive teftimony, that it is fufceptible of being bent into a variety of forms by accidental circumstances.

As the traveller, therefore, by vifiting many countries, comes gradually to lose those prejudices, which his mind would naturally have imbibed, by a continual refidence in any one of thefe; fo the philologist, by being made acquainted with the different modes of poetry that have prevailed, will gradually come to dif tinguish the permanent and invariable traits of the human mind, from thofe accidental features that at times have tended to disguise it, under the mask of ornament or affectation. With this view, we shall not fail to prefent our readers with a few of thofe poetic effufions of our forefathers, which have hitherto been preferved because of their excellence, from the ravenous tooth of all destroying time; and sometimes, though rarely, we shall perhaps telect fome fragments of the poetry of other nations; but this fhall be done with a fparing hand, and with a due attention to our English

readers.

The present ftile of poetry in Britain, is in many refpects confiderably different from that which prevailed in former times. Yet, among thefe ancient relics, are discoverable many productions of unequivocal merit. Ever among thofe heaps of rubbish, which a falfe tafte had piled up, a gem of ineftimable value may be fometimes found. In this clafs may perhaps be

ranked the two following quotations, felected by an ingenious correfpondent from a collection that few have seen, or had any opportunity of confulting †. They are to be found in a book intituled " A choice of emblems and other devices, for the most part gathered out of fundrie writers, englished and moralized, and divers newly devifed, by Geffrey Whitney." Imprinted at Leyden, in the houfe of Criftopher Plantyn, by Francis Raphalengius, 1583.

"The nightingall that chaunteth all the springe, "Whose warblinge nottes throughout the wooddes are harde,

"Being kept in cage the ceaçeth for to finge,

And mourns because her liberties is barde. " p. 100.

"The longest day in time refigns to nighte; "The greatest oke in time to duste doth turne; “The raven dies, the eagle fails of flighte; "The phenix rare in time herself doth burne: "The princely ftagge at lengthe his race doth runne, "And all muft ende that ever was begunne." p. 23.

No apology, it is hoped willbe necessary, for subjoining the following beautiful ode, that was compofed by an unknown Scottish bard, fhortly after the unfortunate battle of Floddon, in which King James the Fourth of Scotland was flain, and the flower of his nobility destroyed, with a great flaughter of all ranks, by the English army, under the command of the Earl of Surry, in the year 1513. This beautiful ode is ftill fung as a popular ballad in Scotland. It is written in the Scottish dialect of that time. That English readers

The editor will be much obliged to his readers for noting down any thing curious, in this or other refpects, that fhall occur to them in the course of their reading; and merely referring to the books where they are to be found, where it would prove inconvenient to tranfcribe them; and where the books are not fo rare, as cafily to be found.

may be at no lofs for understanding it, a complete gloffary of the terms that here occur is fubjoined, on the accuracy of which, it is believed, they may with certainty rely.

It is to be obferved that in the Scottish dialect, the final 6 in all, fall, and other fuch words, is omitted; and they are written a', fa', &c. A few other words can be expreffed by English words without periphrafis, which are printed here below the line for eafy reference.

Laffes a' lilting before the break o' day.

every

of

Since our bra' forrefters are a' wed away °.

all weeded

*That the English reader may be able fully to comprehend the force of the allufions that occur in this little poem, let him be informed that the scene is laid in the country of Scotland, which at that time was almost wholly open and uninclofed. Farm-houfes, in those days, efpecially near the border, were ufually placed near to each other in fmall villages. The little corn land that belonged to thefe villages or townbips, as they were provincially called, were employed for the pasturage of fheep or cattle; and it frequently happened that the whole of the sheep belonging to one village, were tended by one fhepherd, and pent up each night

a A lilting, a cheerful kind of finging, alluding to a cuftom in Scotland, practifed on all occafions where country people, especially women, are engaged in any kind of employment, the time of the fong being a common measure to all their operations.

b Loaning, an opening between fields of corn, left uncultivated for the fake of driving cattle to the hortieftead from the diftant parts of the farm.

c Bra' pronounced braw, means fometimes finery of drefs'; but on many occafions, as here, it means excellent, worthy, deferving perfons. Forreflers, a general name, poetically here affumed for the men o the country.

fobbing

Ilk ane lifts her leglin f, and hies her away.

every one lifts her milk pail

in one sheep fold, being laid in rotation on each farm fucceffively, that each might share alike in the benefit of the manure they afforded.

The access to these distant parts of the farm from the village, was by paffages through the corn fields, which were left uncultivated for that purpose, and were technically called loans or loanings. These loanings were of unequal breadth, and were usually bounded on each fide by an irregular kind of fence, or rather fear, to prevent the cows which were ufually brought home at night, from having easy access to the corn fields, as they went and returned, attended by the herd, whofe prefence could in no cafe be difpenfed with. These were therefore a kind of pafturage paths around the villages, which, for the most part, carried very good grafs, in confequence of the frequent manuring they received by the dropping of the dung from the cattle. They are therefore here very properly characterised by the epithet green loanings.

In many places the ewes were milked, for fome time at least after the lambs were weaned; and this was always done early in the morning, that the sheep might be allowed to go forth to their paftures in proper time and as the sheep folds were often at a confiderable distance from the village, it became neceffary for the milk maids who performed that operation to fet out from the village before day break; and as the milkmaids of each family in the village went out together, they naturally went along the green loanings finging cheerfully together, or lilting, as it is provincially termed, accompanied often by the young men, who naturally gallanted them on thefe occafions. Innocent mirth and good humour, therefore, abounded then.

d Buchts, a small pen, usually put up in the corner of the sheep fold into which the ewes were driven when they were to be milked.

e Scorning is almoft exclufively applied among the country people, to denote that kind of merriment occafioned by teafing a young girl about her lover.

f Leglin, a kind of bucket, with one of the ftaves projecting above the reft as a handle.

VOL. I.

no youug men

'Mang ftacks with the laffes at bogle to play 1,

among

For ilk ane fits drearie,

lover

The flow'rs o' the foreft wh' are a' wed away.

ho are all weeded

IV.

In har'ft at the fhearing,

harveft

Nae blythe lads are jeering,

jefting, mocking

:

In the corner of the fold was ufually reared a small pen, into which the ewes were driven when they were to be milked, in which they were crowded fo close as to be easily taken. This small pen was called a bucht. The young men officiously affifted in collecting them and as the rams were fometimes flyly flipped in among the ewes, this gave room for many a rustic joke, and great rural merriment. In short, it was in general a merry playful expedition, when the young men and women were mixed together; and afforded a most lively subject for contraft to the poet.

g Swankies, a cant term for young lads, half-grown men.

h The diverfion here alluded to is still a common amusement among young people in Scotland, and is called bogle about the ftacks. To understand it, let the English reader be informed, that there, it it is customary to put up the corns in round ricks, called flacks, clofe together in a yard adjoining to the barn. The diverfion confifts in one perfon hunting feveral others among these ftacks, and usually confifts of as numerous a party as can be easily collected together. It is chiefly confined to very young boys and girls, for very obvious reafons, near towns; but in the country, it affords sometimes a very innocent and attractive amusement for the youth of both fexes, when farther advanced in life.

i In hat veft, the corns in Scotland are all cut down by the fickle, usually by bands of men and women intermixed, where much cheerfulness and good humour usually prevails, and where many a courtship