gloomy cares my soul e'er knew
Within the arms of Mary.

Young fancy spread her visions gay,
Love fondly view'd the fair display,
Hope shew'd the blissfu' nuptial day,
And I was rapt with Mary,
My ain dear Mary;
The flowers of Eden strew'd the way
That led me to my Mary.

But life is now a dreary waste,
I lanely wander sair depress'd,
For cold and lifeless is that breast
Where throbb'd the heart of Mary,
My ain dear Mary;
She 's gane to seats o' blissfu' rest,
And I hae lost my Mary.

[15] This song was set to music by R. A. Smith.

JOHN GRIEVE.

John Grieve, whose name is especially worthy of commemoration as the
generous friend of men of genius, was born at Dunfermline on the 12th
September 1781. He was the eldest son of the Rev. Walter Grieve,
minister of the Cameronian or Reformed Presbyterian church in that
place; his mother, Jane Ballantyne, was the daughter of Mr George
Ballantyne, tenant at Craig, in the vale of Yarrow. While he was very
young, his father retired from the ministerial office, and fixed his
residence at the villa of Cacrabank, in Ettrick. After an ordinary
education at school, young Grieve became clerk to Mr Virtue, shipowner
and wood-merchant in Alloa: and, early in 1801, obtained a situation in
a bank at Greenock. He soon returned to Alloa, as the partner of his
friend Mr Francis Bald, who had succeeded Mr Virtue in his business as a
wood-merchant. On the death of Mr Bald, in 1804, he proceeded to
Edinburgh to enter into copartnership with Mr Chalmers Izzet,
hat-manufacturer on the North Bridge. The firm subsequently assumed, as
a third partner, Mr Henry Scott, a native of Ettrick.

Eminently successful in business, Mr Grieve found considerable leisure
for the cultivation of strong literary tastes. Though without pretension
as a man of letters, he became reputed as a contributor to some of the
more respectable periodicals.[16] In his youth he had been a votary of
the Muse, and some of his early lyrics he was prevailed on to publish
anonymously in Hogg's "Forest Minstrel." The songs marked C., in the
contents of that work, are from his pen. In the encouragement of men of
genius he evinced a deep interest, affording them entertainment at his
table, and privately contributing to the support of those whose
circumstances were less fortunate. Towards the Ettrick Shepherd his
beneficence was m