Welcomes in the sunny ray,
Wet with dew its head is hinging,
Bending low the prickly spray;
Then haste, my love, while birds are singing,
To the newborn day.

OCTOBER WINDS.

AIR--_"Oh, my love's bonnie."_

October winds, wi' biting breath,
Now nip the leaves that 's yellow fading;
Nae gowans glint upon the green,
Alas! they 're co'er'd wi' winter's cleading.
As through the woods I musing gang,
Nae birdies cheer me frae the bushes,
Save little robin's lanely sang,
Wild warbling where the burnie gushes.

The sun is jogging down the brae,
Dimly through the mist he 's shining,
And cranreugh hoar creeps o'er the grass,
As Day resigns his throne to E'ening.
Oft let me walk at twilight gray,
To view the face of dying nature,
Till Spring again, wi' mantle green,
Delights the heart o' ilka creature.

SIR ALEXANDER BOSWELL, BART.

Alexander Boswell was the eldest son of James Boswell, the celebrated
biographer of Dr Johnson, and grandson of Lord Auchinleck, one of the
senators of the College of Justice. He was born on the 9th October 1775.
His mother, a daughter of Sir Walter Montgomery, Bart., of Lainshaw, was
a woman of superior intelligence, and of agreeable and dignified
manners. Along with his only brother James, he received his education at
Westminster School and the University of Oxford. In 1795, on the death
of his father, he succeeded to the paternal estate of Auchinleck. He now
made the tour of Europe, and on his return took up his residence in the
family mansion.

Inheriting his father's love of literature, and deriving from his mother
a taste for elegant accomplishments, Alexander Boswell diligently
applied himself to the cultivation of his mind, by an examination of the
stores of the famous "Auchinleck Library." From his youth he had been
ardent in his admiration of Burns, and had written verses for the
amusement of his friends. A wooer of the lyric Muse, many of his lays
rapidly obtained circulation, and were sung with a gusto not inferior to
that inspired by the songs of the Bard of Coila. In 1803 he published,
without his name, in a thin octavo volume, "Songs, chiefly in the
Scottish Dialect," and subsequently contributed a number of lyrics of
various merit to the Musical Collection of Mr George Thomson, and
Campbell's "Albyn's Anthology." Several other poetical works proceede