as much
forgotten as if he had been dead; and when he died--did England mourn
over him--or, after having denied him bread, give him so much as a
stone? No. He dropt into the grave with no other lament we ever heard of
but a few copies of poorish verses in some of the Annuals, and seldom
or never now does one hear a whisper of his name. O fie! well may the
white rose blush red--and the red rose turn pale. Let England then leave
Scotland to her shame about Burns; and, thinking of her own treatment of
Bloomfield, cover her own face with both her hands, and confess that it
was pitiful. At least, if she will not hang down her head in humiliation
for her own neglect of her own "poetic child," let her not hold it high
over Scotland for the neglect of hers--palliated as that neglect was by
many things--and since, in some measure, expiated by a whole nation's
tears shed over her great poet's grave.

What! not a word for Allan Ramsay? Theocritus was a pleasant Pastoral,
and Sicilia sees him among the stars. But all his dear Idyls together
are not equal in worth to the "Gentle Shepherd." Habbie's Howe is a
hallowed place now among the green airy Pentlands. Sacred for ever the
solitary murmur of that waterfa'!

"A flowerie howm, between twa verdant braes,
Where lassies use to wash and bleach their claes;
A trotting burnie, wimpling through the ground,
Its channel pebbles, shining, smooth, and round:
Here view twa barefoot beauties, clean and clear,
'Twill please your eye, then gratify your ear;
While Jenny what she wishes discommends,
And Meg, with better sense, true love defends!"

"About them and siclike" is the whole poem. Yet "faithful love shall
memorise the song." Without any scenery but that of rafters, which
overhead fancy may suppose a grove, 'tis even yet sometimes acted by
rustics in the barn, though nothing on this earth will ever persuade a
low-born Scottish lass to take a part in a play; while delightful is
felt, even by the lords and ladies of the land, the simple Drama of
humble life; and we ourselves have seen a high-born maiden look
"beautiful exceedingly" as Patie's Betrothed, kilted to the knee in the
kirtle of a Shepherdess.

We have been gradually growing national overmuch, and are about to grow
even more so, therefore ask you to what era, pray, did Thomson belong?
To none. Thomson had no precursor--and till Cowper no follower. He
effulged all at once sunlike--like Scotla