s a quaint little personal reminiscence. An
aged person at Earlstoun many years ago related, that there used to be a
portrait of the minstrel in Thirlestane Castle, near Lauder,
"representing him as a douce old man, _leading a cow by a straw-rope_."
The master of the "gay science" gradually slipping down from the clouds,
and settling quietly and doucely on the plain hard ground of ordinary
life and business! Let all pale-faced and sharp-chinned youths, who are
spasmodic poets, or who are in danger of becoming such, keep steadily
before them the picture of minstrel Burn, "leading a cow by a
straw-rope"--and go and do likewise.

But as trees and flowers can only grow and come to perfection in soils
by nature appropriate to them, so it is manifest that all this rich and
fertile growth of lyrics, of minstrelsy and music, could only spring up
amongst a people most impressionable and joyous. I speak of the Lowland
population, and especially of the Borderers, with whose habits, manners
and customs, alone I am personally acquainted; and the lingering traces
of whose old forms of life--so gay, kindly, and suggestive--I saw some
thirty years ago, just before they sank under the mammonism,
commonplace, critical apery, and cold material self-seeking, which have
hitherto been the plague of the present generation. We have become more
practical and knowing than our forefathers, but not so wise. We are now
a "fast people;" but we miss the true goal of life--that is, _sober
happiness_. Fast to smattering; fast to outward, isolated show; fast to
bankruptcy; fast to suicide; fast to some finale of enormous and
dreadful infamy. Bah! rather the plain, honest, homely life of our
grandfathers--

"Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;
Along the cool, sequester'd vale of life,
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way."

Or rather (for every age has its own type, and old forms of life cannot
be stereotyped and reproduced), let us have a philosophic and Christian
combination of modern adventure and "gold-digging" with old-fashioned
balance of mind, and neighbourliness, and open-heartedness, and thankful
enjoyment.

Our Scottish race have been--yes, and notwithstanding modern changes,
still are--a joyous people--a people full of what I shall term _a lyric
joyousness_. I say they still are--as may be found any day up the
Ettricks, and Yarrows, and Galas--up any of our Bord