Victoria has been pleased to make, is Scotland, with all her ancient faithfulness and heart-warmth, forward to welcome her Sovereign.]

I SING the day sae aften sung,

Wi' which our lugs hae yearly rung,
In whase loud praise the Muse has dung
A' kind o' print;

But wow! the limmer's fairly flung;
There's naething in't

I'm fain to think the joys the same
In London town as here at hame,
Whare folk of ilka age and name,

Baith blind and cripple,

Forgather aft, O fy for shame!

To drink and tipple.

O Muse, be kind, and dinna fash us,
To flee awa' beyont Parnassus,

Nor seek for Helicon to wash us,

That heath'nish spring;

Wi' Highland whisky scour our hawses,
And gar us sing.

Begin then, dame, ye've drunk your fill,
You wouldna hae the tither gill?
You'll trust me, mair would do you ill,
And ding you doitet;

Troth 'twould be sair agains my will
To hae the wyte o't.

Sing then, how, on the fourth of June,

Our bells screed aff a loyal tune,

Our antient castle shoots at noon,

Wi' flag-staff buskit,

Frae which the soldier blades come down

To cock their musket.

Oh willawins, Mons Meg!1 for you,
'Twas firing crack'd thy muckle mou';
What black mishantar gart ye spew

Baith gut and ga'?

I fear they bang'd thy belly fu'

Against the law.

Right seldom am I gi'en to bannin,
But, by my saul, ye was a cannon,
Cou'd hit a man had he been stauning

In shire o' Fife,

1 This is an enormous piece of artillery, of rude and primitive construction, which still points its 'muckle mou' from the king's bastion towards the city. It was removed to the Tower of London in 1754 as 'unserviceable,' but on the intervention of Sir Walter Scott was restored, with a new carriage. It consists of longitudinal bars and staves hooped, and is twenty inches in the bore, the length being nearly eighteen feet. Evidence, which fully satisfied Sir Walter Scott, has been led by the well known antiquary and poet, Mr. Joseph Train, that the usual account of its being founded in Mons, Flanders,' is errant, and that on the contrary this famous piece of artillery is a native of the land to which all its traditions belong.' Mr. Train establishes, that this huge piece of ordnance was presented to James II. in 1455, by the M'Lellans, when he arrived with an army at Carlingwark, to besiege William, Earl of Douglas, in the castle of Threave. The whole evidence will be found in 'Contemporaries of Burns,' Joseph Train, p. 200 sq.; and with additional notices in Mr. Wilson's Memorials, vol. i. p. 129; but, verily, the Life Character, Adventures, &c. of Meg,' which the vulgar literature of the last century would ludicrously illustrate, as in Watson's 'Ancient Scots Poems,' might form the subject-matter of a right merry Pasquil for our Scottish Walpole, Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq. Fergusson speaks of the 'cracking' of Meg's 'muckle mou' feloniously. From Fountainhall's 'Chronicles,' Note No. 1, we learn that it was "burst when firing a salute to James, Duke of York, on his visit to the castle, 1682."

Sax lang Scots miles ayont Clackmanan,1
And tak' his life.2

The hills in terror wou'd cry out,
And echo to thy dinsome rout;

The herds wou'd gather in their nowt,

That glowr'd wi' wonder,

Haflins afraid to bide thereout

To hear thy thunder.

Sing likewise, Muse, how blue-gown bodies,

3

Like scar-craws new ta'en down frae woodies,

1 In the festivities celebrated at Edinburgh, by the Queen Dowager, Mary of Guise, on the marriage of her daughter, Queen Mary, to the Dauphin of France, Mons Meg testified, with loudest acclaim, the general joy. The treasurer's accounts curiously illustrate Fergusson:-" By the Queenis precept and speciale command, to certane pyonaris for thair lauboris in the mounting of Mons furth of her lair to be schote, and for the finding and carying of hir bullet after scho was schot, frae Weirdrie Mure, to the castell, of Edinburgh, &c." Wardie is fully two miles north from the castle, near Granton.

2 In the list of ordnance delivered by the governor to Colonel Monk, on the surrender of the castle in 1650, Meg receives, with all due prominence, the designation of " the great iron murderer, Muckle Meg."-Provincial Antiquities, p. 21.-Wilson, vol. i. p. 131.

3 Blue-gown, Bede-man, Beidman. In the court of Exchequer this term Bedeman is used to denote one of that class of paupers who enjoy the royal bounty. Each of these beidmen, annually, on the king's birthday, receives a blue great-coat, or gown, as it is denominated, (whence the vulgar blue-gown,') with a badge which marks their privilege of begging; and at the same time a loaf of bread, a bottle of ale, a leathern purse, and in it a penny for every year of the king's life. Every birth-day another beidman or bluegown is added to the number, as a penny is added to the salary of each of them.-Jamieson, Etym. Dict. in loc. It will be recollected that Edie Ochiltree and Patie Birnie, of the latter of whom the editor has a characteristic portrait in his blue-gown, were of the fraternity. Interesting memoranda concerning the blue-gowns will be found in the letter-press to Kay, vol. ii., part 1, p. 264 sq. It gives me pleasure to be enabled to illustrate the gathering of these 'gentle' beggars as portrayed by Fergusson, from the 'Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time' by Mr. Daniel Wilson (vol. i. p. 189). It used to be, he says, " a very interesting sight, on a fine summer morning, between seven and eight o'clock, before the Canongate kirk bell began to ring for the appointed service, to see the strange groups of Blue-gowns of all ages, from forty-five to ninety and upwards, assembling in front of the kirk.

B

Come here to cast their clouted duddies,
And get their pay :

Than them, what magistrate mair proud is
On king's birth-day?

On this great day, the city-guard,1

In military art well lear❜d,

Wi' powder'd pow, and shaven beard,

Gang thro' their functions,

By hostile rabble seldom spar'd

Of clarty unctions.

O soldiers for your ain dear sakes,
For Scotland's, alias Land of Cakes,
Gie not her bairns sic deadly pakes,
Nor be sae rude,

Wi' firelock or Lochaber aix,2

As spill their blude.

Now round and round the serpents3 whiz,
Wi' hissing wrath and angry phiz;

Venerable looking men, bent with the weight of years, some lame, others blind, led by a boy or a wife,-whose tartan or hodden gray told of the remote districts from whence they had come,-or perhaps by a rough Highland dog, looking equally strange on the streets of the ancient burgh; while all the old bede-men were clad in their monastic looking habits, and with large badges on their breasts. It was curious thus to see pilgrims from the remotest parts of Scotland and the Isles, the men of another generation,-annually returning to the capital, and each contriving to arrive there on the very day of the king's birth and bounty." 1 See page 6, note 2.

2 The Town-guard of Edinburgh were, till a late period, armed with this weapon when on their police duty. There was a hook at the back of the axe, which the ancient Highlanders used to assist them to climb over walls, fixing the hook upon it, and raising themselves by the handle. The axe, which was also much used by the natives of Ireland, is supposed to have been introduced into both countries from Scandinavia.Scott, Waverley, note, p. 113. (Abbotsford edition.)

3 Fire-crackers-the delight of all mischievous boys. They leap to and fro upon the ground and explode again and again.

Sometimes they catch a gentle gizz,

Alake the day!

And singe, wi' hair-devouring bizz,
Its curls away.

Shou'd th' owner patiently keek round,
To view the nature of his wound,
Dead pussie, dragled thro' the pond,
Takes him a lounder,

Which lays his honour on the ground
As flat's a flounder.

The Muse maun also now implore
Auld wives to steek ilk hole and bore;
If baudrins slip but to the door,

I fear, I fear,

She'll no lang shank upon all-four
This time o' year.1

Next day each hero tells his news
O' crackit crowns and broken brows,
And deeds that here forbid the Muse
Her theme to swell,
Or time mair precious [to] abuse
Their crimes to tell.

She'll rather to the fields resort,
Whare music gars the day seem short,
Whare doggies play, and lambies sport
On gowany braes,

Whare peerless Fancy hads her court,
And tunes her lays.

1 See Additional Notes and Illustrations, B.