ese
sacred melodies as he had done in his youthful days. In his poem of "The
Holy Fair," he less reverently adduces mention of these sacred airs:--

"Now turn the Psalms o' David ower,
And lilt wi' holy clangour.
O' double verse come gie us four,
An' skirl up the Bangor."

These tunes seem to have been strictly and exclusively national. In
proof of such psalmody being quite national, I have been told that many
of these tunes were composed by artisans, such as builders, joiners,
blacksmiths, etc.

Several of the psalm-tunes more peculiar to Scotland are no doubt of an
early date. In Ravenscroft's _Psalms_, published with the music in four
parts in 1621, he gives the names of seven as purely Scottish--_King's,
Duke's, Abbey, Dunfermline, Dundee, Glasgow, Martyrs._ I was used to
hear such psalmody in my early days in the parish church of Fettercairn,
where we always attended during summer. It had all the simple
characteristics described by Burns, and there was a heartiness and
energy too in the congregation when, as he expresses it, they used to
"skirl up the Bangor," of which the effects still hang in my
recollection. At that time there prevailed the curious custom, when some
of the psalms were sung, of reading out a single line, and when that was
sung another line was read, and so throughout[18]. Thus, on singing the
50th psalm, the first line sounded thus:--"_Our God shall come, and
shall no more;_" when that was sung, there came the next startling
announcement--"_Be silent, but speak out._" A rather unfortunate
_juxtaposition_ was suggested through this custom, which we are assured
really happened in the church of Irvine. The precentor, after having
given out the first line, and having observed some members of the family
from the castle struggling to get through the crowd on a sacramental
occasion, cried out, "Let the noble family of Eglinton pass," and then
added the line which followed the one he had just given out rather
mal-apropos--"_Nor stand in sinners' way_." One peculiarity I remember,
which was, closing the strain sometimes by an interval less than a
semitone; instead of the half-note preceding the close or key-note, they
used to take the _quarter-note,_ the effect of which had a peculiar
gurgling sound, but I never heard it elsewhere. It may be said these
Scottish tunes were unscientific, and their performance rude. It may be
so, but the effect was striking, as I recall it thro