oo
strong an utterance of national partiality to say that the songwriters
of Scotland are beyond comparison with those of either of the other
united kingdoms. The simplest of the old ditties brought out of the
ancient poets contain a grace of genuine poetry and real feeling far
above the unmeaning jingle of verse which is the most common utterance
of popular song; and the cultivation of this delightful gift has called
forth the most tender and artless poems from gentle writers whom nothing
but that inspiration could have made to produce what was in them. The
pathetic wail of the poor lady who found to her cost that

"Love is bonnie, a little time when it is new,"

but that

"When love's auld it waxeth cauld,
And fades away like morning dew";

and that touching lullaby in which the mother hushes the babe whose

"Father wrought her great annoy,"

with its tender and simple refrain--

"It grieves me sore to hear thee weep,"

breathe out of the ancient depths of human trouble with a reserve and
simplicity of feeling that seem almost personal. But the kindred
inspiration which called forth the two versions of the "Flowers of the
Forest" and the ballad of "Auld Robin Gray," along with many more, shows
how warm was the impulse to this expression of feelings, which were at
once intensified and drawn out of the sphere of revelations too
individual by the breath of the melody which carried them forth.

Allan Ramsay has the merit of being the first collector of Scottish
song. He was remorseless, like his century, and made the wildest havoc
with some of his originals, cutting and slashing as suited his fancy,
and adding of his own whenever it pleased him so to do. But with the
exception of a number of Strephons and Chloes, not always ungraceful, in
the newer fashion, and a sprinkling of ruder verses in which there is
more indecency than immorality, the first two volumes of the _Tea-table
Miscellany_ are full of merit, and include many delightful simple
lyrics, songs which compare most advantageously with the insipid "words"
which at this present advanced age are used as a sort of necessary evil
to serve the purpose of the music. "Say that our way is only an
harmonious speaking of many witty or soft thoughts after the poet has
dressed them in four or five stanzas," says Ramsay, with the apology
which is a veiled assertion of higher aims, "yet undoubtedly these must
relish best with people who have not