Go to the youth-of Jessy speak, And, oh! believe his Jessy's breast Then, gentle stranger, seek the youth, THE CABINET, vol. . p. 317. No. CLXXVI. Sweet sounds! that oft have sooth'd to rest And charm'd away mine infant teurs : That in the wild the traveller hears. Oh if, as ancient sages ween, Can mingle with the mortal throng; LEYDEN. Sir, PERMIT me, through the channel of your miscellany, to suggest the expediency of a short and liberal inquiry into the use and progress of the admired songs, that are sung to melodies peculiar to the Scottish Low-landers.* The purpose of the following hints is rather to obtain information, than to establish any favourite system of my own. I mean, however, to confine myself to the words; the music having been treated of in a learned dissertation published some years ago. *For the difference between them and the Highland vocal airs, consult Mr. Mac Donald's collection of the latter, published in the year 1784. I shall first state some circumstances that seem to impeach the high antiquity of these admired lays. In a very rare and curious book,* entitled Scotland's Complaint, printed at St. Andrews, soon after the fatal battle of Pinkey, the author takes occasion to give a list of the poems, the tales and the dances, that were then in most repute. The poems are thirty-five in number, which, from their titles, may have been partly songs. The man of system will, however, be mortified to find that the Hunts of Cheviot and the battle of Harlow are the only ones familiar to modern ears. There is, indeed, one † relating to the Duke of Albany and Delabante, who was slain by the Homes, in the minority of James V. Hardiknute is one of the tales, some of which were probably in verse; and to the dancetunes we are equally strangers. It may be said, this is only a specimen; but surely the author's learning and good sense would have led him to prefer excellence to mediocrity; nor was he likely to omit the Flowers of the Forest, or a number of other songs, which do honour to the taste and feelings of his countrymen. At the same time, this objection strikes with equal See Pinkert. Anc. Poem. Introd. p. 107. Vol. ii. p. 543. ↑ Pitscottie's History, Ed. 1778, p. 201. force at the existence of all our ancient poetry, in direct opposition to the most convincing evi dence. But this is not all; neither in the Bannatyne nor Maitland collection, do we find any of the pastoral songs that are reckoned ancient; and in the former, there is but a single humorous one of any merit. From the specimens of fifty-six love songs inscribed in it, we learn, that the authors were courtiers and scholars, rather than simple swains. If they followed the model of the old English songs,† the music of which was entirely in harmony, it need not be wondered at, that they were never popular in a country that delighted only in simple melodies. Even this omission goes only to prove, that the compilers of the two collections mentioned above, contented themselves with transcribing pieces written by poets who had figured in the republic of letters. They were, perhaps, too fastidious to gather the songs and ballads that were the delight of the common people. But though the antiquity of the pastoral and humorous ones in question cannot be proved from old manuscripts, they may have existed at * Anc. Poems, 1568, p. 191, 192. 212. a still earlier period, among an idle, illiterate people. Having no connection with courts or colleges, they were in no hazard of forming to themselves an artificial taste, on quaint metaphysical models. In that state of society, the effusions of untaught genius are seldom committed to writing, being handed down from father to son by oral tradition. Nothing, indeed, is more easily acquired, or longer remembered, than songs or tales, conjoined with national music, especially when the words touch upon the favourite pursuits and passions of a people. There is, however, a circumstance which may help to throw some light upon the present question. The scene of the finest pastoral songs is commonly laid upon the Tweed, or some of its tributary streams: from this it may be inferred, that the authors were natives of the country. Though, doubtless, a species of poetry and music flourished there, long before the sixteenth century, the pieces now under consideration cannot be referred to the border minstrels. The fragments of their compositions that have been transmitted to us breathe a rugged spirit, well suited to a people whose trade was arms, and whose love-tales were sometimes connected with family feuds. Had the southern countries been, at that time, the favourite seat of pastoral |