1. ON THE ORAL TRADITION OF POETRY. JAMQUE SACRUM TENERIS VÁTEM VENERETUR AR ANNIS. a 3 Welly 30 June, 1944 for YOUR GRACE's exalted character, as the friend and as the ornament of your country, by addreffing these volumes to a name fo much revered and beloved by the nation. whofe 24 whose poetry they are intended to preferve and to illuftrate. The chief compofitions in this volume, MY LORD, will be found to breathe the living fpirit of the Scotifh people, a race of men who have left monuments of their martial glory in every country. YOUR GRACE, it is hoped, will with pleasure here recognise the noble ardour your example lately tended to revive, by raifing and commanding in perfon a military force in defence of your country, at a period when her natives had not difcernment to perceive, nor spirit to affume, the privileges of British fubjects. The fecond volume, MY LORD, contains. chiefly pieces defcriptive of rural merriment, and of love and domestic happiness. Even thefe, it is humbly believed, YOUR GRACE will not difdain; for it is well known that the felicity of the poor in general, and of your numerous tenants and dependants in particular, |