wadna see;
And her braw lasses bore the gree
Frae a' the rest o' Gowrie.

[37] See _postea_, in this volume, under article "Lady Nairn."

UPON THE BANKS O' FLOWING CLYDE.[38]

Upon the banks o' flowing Clyde
The lasses busk them braw;
But when their best they hae put on,
My Jeanie dings them a';
In hamely weeds she far exceeds
The fairest o' the toun;
Baith sage and gay confess it sae,
Though drest in russit goun.

The gamesome lamb that sucks its dam,
Mair harmless canna be;
She has nae faut, if sic ye ca't,
Except her love for me;
The sparkling dew, o' clearest hue,
Is like her shining een;
In shape and air wha can compare,
Wi' my sweet lovely Jean.

[38] These two stanzas were written as a continuation of Burns's popular
song, "Of a' the airts the wind can blaw." Two other stanzas were added
by John Hamilton. See _ante_, p. 124.

ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.

A miscellaneous writer, a poet, and a musical composer, Alexander
Campbell first saw the light at Tombea, on the banks of Loch Lubnaig, in
Perthshire. He was born in 1764, and received such education as his
parents could afford him, which was not very ample, at the parish school
of Callander. An early taste for music induced him to proceed to
Edinburgh, there to cultivate a systematic acquaintance with the art.
Acquiring a knowledge of the science under the celebrated Tenducci and
others, he became himself a teacher of the harpsichord and of vocal
music, in the metropolis. As an upholder of Jacobitism, when it was
scarcely to be dreaded as a political offence, he officiated as organist
in a non-juring chapel in the vicinity of Nicolson Street; and while so
employed had the good fortune to form the acquaintance of Burns, who was
pleased to discover in an individual entertaining similar state
sentiments with himself, an enthusiastic devotion to national melody and
song.

Mr Campbell was twice married; his second wife was the widow of a
Highland gentleman, and he was induced to hope that his condition might
thus be permanently improved. He therefore relinquished his original
vocation, and commenced the study of physic, with the view of obtaining
an appointment as surgeon in the public service; but his sanguine hopes
proved abortive, and, to complete his mortification, his wife left him
in Edinburgh, and sought a retreat in the Highlands. He again pr