luve wi' his blessins abide thee,
For Jessie 's the queen o' my breast.

I maun gang an' get hame, my sweet Jessie,
For fear some young laird o' degree
May come roun' on his fine sleekit bawsy,
An' ding a' my prospects agee.
There 's naething like gowd to the miser,
There 's naething like light to the e'e,
But they canna gie me ony pleasure,
If Jessie prove faithless to me.

Let us meet on the border, my Jessie,
Whaur Kelvin links bonnily bye,
Though my words may be scant to address ye,
My heart will be loupin' wi' joy.
If ance I were wedded to Jessie,
An' that may be ere it be lang,
I 'll can brag o' the bonniest lassie
That ere was the theme o' a sang.

WILLIAM LAIDLAW.

As the confidential friend, factor, and amanuensis of Sir Walter Scott,
William Laidlaw has a claim to remembrance; the authorship of "Lucy's
Flittin'" entitles him to rank among the minstrels of his country. His
ancestors on the father's side were, for a course of centuries,
substantial farmers in Tweedside, and his father, James Laidlaw, with
his wife, Catherine Ballantyne, rented from the Earl of Traquair the
pastoral farm of Blackhouse, in Yarrow. William, the eldest of a family
of three sons, was born in November 1780. His education was latterly
conducted at the Grammar School of Peebles. James Hogg kept sheep on his
father's farm, and a strong inclination for ballad-poetry led young
Laidlaw to cultivate his society. They became inseparable friends--the
Shepherd guiding the fancy of the youth, who, on the other hand,
encouraged the Shepherd to persevere in ballad-making and poetry.

In the summer of 1801, Laidlaw formed the acquaintance of Sir Walter
Scott. In quest of materials for the third volume of the "Border
Minstrelsy," Scott made an excursion into the vales of Ettrick and
Yarrow; he was directed to Blackhouse by Leyden, who had been informed
of young Laidlaw's zeal for the ancient ballad. The visit was an
eventful one: Scott found in Laidlaw an intelligent friend and his
future steward, and through his means formed, on the same day, the
acquaintance of the Ettrick Shepherd. The ballad of "Auld Maitland," in
the third volume of the "Minstrelsy," was furnished by Laidlaw; he
recovered it from the recitation of "Will of Phawhope," the maternal
uncle of the Shepherd. A correspondence with Scott speedily ripened
into friendship; the great