FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77  
78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   >>  
FROM BEMERSYDE HILL: SCOTT'S FAVOURITE VIEW FROM A WATER-COLOUR SKETCH PAINTED BY JAMES ORROCK, R.I. (_See pp. 89 and 123_) [Illustration] Both Scott and Campbell have sung of the unhappy Maid of Neidpath spent with grief and disease, waiting her lover on the Castle walls, and beholding him ride past all unconscious of her identity. "He came--he passed--a heedless gaze, As o'er some stranger glancing; Her welcome, spoke in faltering phrase, Lost in his courser's prancing-- The Castle arch whose hollow tone Returns each whisper spoken, Could scarcely catch the feeble moan Which told her heart was broken." The literary associations of Peebles--a charming township--are outstanding. William and Robert Chambers (founders of _Chambers's Journal_) were natives. So were Thomas Smibert and John Veitch, poets and essayists both. Mungo Park (a Gideon Gray prototype) was the town's surgeon for a time--an eternal longing for Africa in his soul. "Meg Dods," the best landlady in fiction, was one of its heroines. And "Peblis to the Play," probably by James I., is a Scots classic. Traquair is poetic ground every foot of it. At its "bonnie bush" how many singers have caught inspiration from Crawford of Drumsoy in 1725, to Principal Shairp in our own day! Shairp's lyric may well be quoted in full. It is by far the finest contribution to modern Border minstrelsy. "Thank ye again for this exquisite song; I would rather have been the man to write it than Gladstone in all his greatness and goodness," was the exuberant "Rab" Brown's compliment to the author: "Will ye gang wi' me and fare To the bush aboon Traquair? Owre the high Minchmuir we'll up and awa', This bonny simmer noon, While the sun shines fair aboon, And the licht sklents saftly doun on holm and ha'. "And what would you do there, At the bush aboon Traquair? A lang dreich road, ye had better let it be; Save some auld skrunts o' birk I' the hillside lirk, There's nocht i' the warld for man to see. "But the blithe lilt o' that air, 'The Bush aboon Traquair,' I need nae mair, it's eneuch for me; Owre my cradle its sweet chime, Cam' soughin' frae auld time, Sae tide what may, I'll awa' and see. "And what saw ye there At the bush aboon Traquair? Or what did ye hear that was worth your he
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77  
78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   >>  



Top keywords:
Traquair
 

Castle

 

Chambers

 

Shairp

 

greatness

 
goodness
 
exuberant
 

compliment

 
Gladstone
 

author


minstrelsy

 

Principal

 
Drumsoy
 

Crawford

 
singers
 

caught

 
inspiration
 
quoted
 

Border

 

modern


finest

 

contribution

 

exquisite

 

eneuch

 

blithe

 

cradle

 

soughin

 

hillside

 

shines

 

simmer


Minchmuir

 
sklents
 

saftly

 

skrunts

 

dreich

 
BEMERSYDE
 

classic

 
SKETCH
 

phrase

 
faltering

glancing
 

stranger

 
PAINTED
 
passed
 

heedless

 

courser

 
whisper
 

spoken

 
scarcely
 

Returns