had written, either before or since, none have reached the merit of this admirable little poem. It struck her that some tale of virtuous distress in humble life would be most suitable to the plaintive character of her favorite air; and she accordingly set about such an attempt, taking the name of "Auld Robin Gray" from an ancient herd at Balcarras. When she had written two or three of the verses she called to her junior sister (afterward Lady Hardwicke), who was the only person near her, and thus addressed her: "I have been writing a ballad, my dear; I am oppressing my heroine with many misfortunes; I have already sent her Jamie to sea, and broken her father's arm, and made her mother fall sick, and given her Auld Robin Gray for her lover: but I wish to load her with a fifth sorrow within the four lines-poor thing! Help me to one." "Steal the cow, sister Anne," said the little Elizabeth. "The cow," adds Lady Anne in her letter, "was immediately lifted by me, and the song completed."-Illustrated Book of Scottish Song.

Page 137.-To MARY IN HEAVEN.-" At Ellisland," says Professor Wilson, "Burns wrote many of his finest strains, and, above all, that immortal burst of passion, 'To Mary in Heaven.' This celebrated poem was composed in September, 1789, on the anniversary of the day in which he heard of the death of his early love, Mary Campbell. According to Mrs. Burns, he spent that day, though laboring under cold, in the usual work of his harvest, and apparently in excellent spirits; but as the twilight deepened he appeared to grow very sad about something, and at length wandered out to the barnyard, to which his wife, in her anxiety for his health, followed him, entreating him in vain to observe that the frost had set in, and to return to the fireside. On being again and again requested to do so, he always promised compliance, but still remained where he was, striding up and down slowly and contemplating the sky, which was singularly clear and starry. At last Mrs. Burns found him stretched on a mass of straw, with his eyes fixed on a beautiful planet that shone like another moon,' and prevailed on him to come in. He immediately on entering the house called for his desk, and wrote as they now stand, with all the ease of one copying from memory, these sublime and pathetic verses."-John Gibson Lockhart.

some milkmaid, that had not yet attained so much age and wisdom as to load her mind with any fears of many things that will never be, as too many men too often do; but she cast away all care, and sung like a nightingale. Her voice was good, and the ditty suited for it. "Twas that smooth song which was made by Kit Marlow now at least fifty years ago; and the milkmaid's mother sung an answer to it, which was made by Sir Walter Raleigh in his younger days. They were old-fashioned poetry, but choicely good; I think much better than the strong lines that are now in fashion in this critical age. Look yonder! On my word, yonder they both be a-milking again! I will give her the chub, and persuade them to sing those two songs to us."

Page 145.-MAID OF ATHENS.-Our servant, who had gone before to procure accommodation, met us at the gate and conducted us to Theodora Macri, the Consulina's, where we at present live. This lady is the widow of the consul, and has three lovely daughters; the eldest celebrated for her beauty, and said to be the subject of those stanzas by Lord Byron

"Maid of Athens, ere we part,

Give, oh, give me back my heart!" etc.

Theresa, the Maid of Athens, Catinco, and Mari. ana, are of middle stature. On the crown of the head of each is a red Albanian skull-cap, with a blue tassel spread out and fastened down like a star. Near the edge or bottom of the skull-cap is a handkerchief of various colors bound around their temples. The youngest wears her hair loose, falling on her shoulders-the hair behind descending down the back nearly to the waist, and, as usual, mixed with silk. The two eldest generally have their hair bound, and fastened under the

handkerchief. Their upper robe is a pelisse edged with fur, hanging loose down to the ankles; below is a handkerchief of muslin covering the bosom and terminating at the waist, which is short; under that, a gown of striped silk or muslin, with a gore round the swell of the loins, falling in front in graceful negligence; white stockings and yellow slippers complete their attire. The two eldest have black or dark hair and eyes; their visage oval and complexion somewhat pale, with teeth of dazzling whiteness. Their cheeks are rounded and nose straight, Page 140.-THE MILKMAID'S SONG.-This song rather inclined to aquiline. The youngest, Mariand "The Milkmaid's Mother's Answer" have ana, is very fair, her face not so finely rounded, been ascribed by some editors to Shakespeare, but has a gayer expression than her isters', but there is very little doubt but that they were whose countenances, except when the conversawritten respectively by Marlowe and Raleigh. tion has something of mirth in it, may be said to Izaak Walton says, in The Compleat Angler: "As be rather pensive. Their persons are elegant ani I left this place and entered into the next field a their manners pleasing and lady-like, such as second pleasure entertained me. 'Twas a hand-would be fascinating in any country. They pos

sess very considerable powers of conversation, and their minds seem to be more instructed than those of the Greek women in general. With such attractions it would, indeed, be remarkable if they did not meet with great attention from, the travellers who occasionally are resident in Athens. They sit in the Eastern style, a little reclined, with their limbs gathered under them on the divan, and without shoes. Their employments are the needle, tambourine, and reading.- Trav-ine the sad fate which was in reality in store for els in Italy, Greece, etc., by H. W. Williams, Esq.

Where me and Annie Laurie
Made up the promise true;
Made up the promise true,

And never forget will I;
And for bonnie Annie Laurie
I'll lay me doun and die.

She's backit like the peacock,
She's breistit like the swan,
She's jimp about the middle,
Her waist ye weel micht span;
Her waist ye weel micht span,
And she has a rolling eye;
And for bonnie Annie Laurie

"And as this Henry, Lord Clifford, did grow to more years, he was still the more capable of his danger, if he had been discovered. And therefore presently after his grandfather, the Lord Vesey, was dead, the said rumor of his being alive being more and more whispered at the court, made his said loving mother, by the means of her second husband, Sir Launcelot Threlkeld, to send him away with the said shepherds and their wives into Cumberland, to be kept as a shepherd there, sometimes at Threlkeld, and amongst his fatherin-law's kindred, and sometimes upon the borders of Scotland, where they took lands purposely for these shepherds that had the custody of him; where many times his father-in-law came purposely to "These two verses," as we are informed by Mr. visit him, and sometimes his mother, though very Robert Chambers, "were written by Mr. Douglas secretly. By which mean kind of breeding this of Finland upon Annie, one of the four daugh- inconvenience befell him, that he could neither ters of Sir Robert Laurie, first baronet of Max-write nor read; for they durst not bring him up welton, by his second wife, who was a daughter

I'll lay me doun and die.

of Riddell of Minto. As Sir Robert was created a

baronet in the year 1685, it is probable that the verses were composed about the end of the seventeenth or the beginning of the eighteenth century. It is painful to record that, notwithstanding the ardent and chivalrous affection displayed by Mr. Douglas in his poem, he did not obtain the heroine for a wife; she was married to Mr. Ferguson of Craigdarroch."

Page 225.-THE GOOD LORD CLIFFORD.-Mr. Southey, describing the mountain-scenery of the Lake region, says: "The story of the shepherd Lord Clifford, which was known only to a few antiquarians till it was told so beautifully in verse by Wordsworth, gives a romantic history to Blencathara." Henry, Lord Clifford, was the son of John, Lord Clifford, who was slain at Towton, which battle placed the House of York upon the throne. His family could expect no mercy from the conqueror, for he was the man who slew the younger brother of Edward IV. in the battle of Wakefield-a deed of cruelty in a cruel age. The hero of this poem fled from his paternal home, and lived for twenty-four years as a shepherd. He was restored to his rank and estates by Henry VII. The following narrative is from an old MS. quoted by Mr. Southey:

"So in the condition of a shepherd's boy at Lonsborrow, where his mother then lived for the most part, did this Lord Clifford spend his youth, till he was about fourteen years of age, about which time his mother's father, Henry Bromflett, Lord Vesey, deceased. But a little after his death it came to be rumored, at the court, that his daughter's two sons were alive, about which their mother was examined; but her answer was, that she had given directions to send them both beyond seas, to be bred there, and she did not know whether they were dead or alive,

in any kind of learning, lest by it his birth should

be discovered. Yet, after he came to his lands and honors, he learnt to write his name only.

"Notwithstanding which disadvantage, after he came to be possessed again, and restored to the enjoyment of his father's estate, he came to be a very wise man, and a very good manager of his estate and fortunes.

"This Henry, Lord Clifford, after he came to be possessed of his said estate, was a great builder and repairer of all his castles in the North, which had gone to decay when he came to enjoy them; for they had been in strangers' hands about twenty-four or twenty-five years. Skipton Castle, and the lands about it, had been given to William Stanley by King Edward IV., which William Stanley's head was cut off about the tenth year of

King Henry VII.; and Westmoreland was given by Edward IV. to his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who was afterward king of England, and was slain in battle, the 22d of August, 1485.

"This Henry, Lord Clifford, did, after he came to his estate, exceedingly delight in astronomy and the contemplation of the course of the stars, which it is likely he was seasoned in during the course of his shepherd's life. He built a great part of Barden Tower (which is now much decayed), and there he lived much; which it is thought he did the rather because in that place he had furnished himself with instruments for that study.

"He was a plain man, and lived for the most part a country life, and came seldom either to the court or London but when he was called thither to sit in them as a peer of the realm, in which parliament, it is reported, he behaved himself wisely, and nobly, and like a good Englishman."-Knight's Half Hours with the Best Authors.

Page 235.-EPITAPH ON THE COUNTESS OF PEMRROKE. In the Jacobean age the herse was a

the poem, says: "I loved the man much, and have not flattered his memory." Henderson seems, indeed, to have been universally liked. "In our travelling party," says Sir James Campbell of Ardkinglass, "was Matthew Henderson, then (1759) and afterward well known and much esteemed in the town of Edinburgh, at that time an officer in the Twenty-fifth regiment of foot, and, like myself, on his way to join the army; and I may say with truth that in the course of a long

life I have never known a more estimable character than Matthew Henderson."-Memoirs of Campbell of Ardkinglass.

Page 253.-BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE.Sir John Moore often said that if he were killed

"19 WARWICK-CRESCENT, W., "DEAR MR. GROSART: "Feb. 24, '75. "I have been asked the question you now address me with, and as duly answered it, I can't remember how many times; there is no sort of objection to one more assurance or rather confession on my part, that I did in my hasty youth presume to use the great and venerated personality of WORDSWORTH as a sort of painter's model; one from which this or the other particular feature may be selected and turned to account: had I intended more, above all, such a boldness as portraying the entire man, I should not have talke) about 'handfuls of silver and bits of ribbon.' These never influenced the change of politics in the great poet, whose defection, nevertheless, accompanied as it was by a regular face-about of his special party, was to my juvenile apprehension, and even mature consideration, an event to deplore. But just as in the tapestry on my wall I can recognize figures which have struck out a fancy, on occasion, that though truly enough thus derived, yet would be preposterous as a copy, so, though I dare not deny the original of my little poem, I altogether refuse to have it considered as the very effigies' of such a moral and intellectual superiority.

"Faithfully y urs,

"ROBERT BROWNING."

in battle he wished to be buried where he fell.
The body was removed at midnight to the citadel
of Corunna. A grave was dug for him on the
rampart there by a body of the Ninth regiment,
the aides-de-camp attending by turns. No coffin
could be procured, and the officers of his staff
wrapped the body, dressed as it was, in a military
cloak and blanket. The interment was hastened,
for about eight in the morning some firing was-Preface to Wordsworth's Prose Works.
heard, and the officers feared that if a serious
attack were made they should be ordered away
and not suffered to pay him their last duty. The
officers of his family bore him to the grave, the
funeral service was read by the chaplain, and the
corpse was covered with earth.-Edinburgh An-
nual Register (1808).

Page 253.-OH, BREATHE NOT HIS NAME.-This poem refers to Robert Emmett, an eloquent Irish enthusiast, born in Cork in 1780. He was an ardent but misguided partisan of Irish independence, and appears to have been a sincere patriot. He was one of the chiefs of the "United Irishmen." In July, 1803, he rashly put himself at the head of a party of insurgents consisting of the rabble of Dublin, who murdered the chiefjustice, Lord Kilwarden, and others, but were quickly dispersed by the military. Emmett was arrested, was tried, and after an eloquent and impassioned speech in vindication of his course, suffered with intrepid courage a felon's death, September, 1803. — Thomas's Biographical Dictionary.

Page 264-THE LOST LEADER.-Many have been the speculations and surmises and assertions and contradictions as to who the "lost leader" was. The verdict of one of the immortals on his fellow-immortal concerns us all; hence it is with no common thankfulness that the editor of Wordsworth's prose embraces this opportunity of settling the controversy beyond appeal by giving a letter which Mr. Browning has done him the honor to write for publication. It is as follows:

Page 268.- ICHABOD.-" And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel." 1 Samuel iv. 21. This poem was written upon receipt of the intelligence of Daniel Webster's speech in the U. S. Senate, March 7, 1850, in defence of the Compromise measures, and especially of the Fugitive Slave Law.

Page 281.-ANNE HATHAWAY.-The Critic for May 17th, 1884, has the following note: "Mr. Rolfe is anxious to trace that one of the two ballads en titled 'Anne Hathaway' in which the lady's name is played upon. The verses, falsely ascribed to Shakespeare, appear in various anthologies of recent date. We are happy to be able to direct Mr. Rolfe to the book in which the ballad first appeared. It is entitled A Tour in Quest of a Genealogy through several parts of Wales, Somersetshire, and Wiltshire, with a Description of Stourhead and Stonehenge, various Anecdotes and Curious Fragments from a Manuscript Collection ascribed to Shakespeare. By a Barrister. London: Sherwood, Neely & Jones. 1811. The 'Fiag. ments' consist of a poem to Anne Hathaway, from W. S.;' a 'Letter' inscribed to Mistress Judith Hathaway,' from William Shakespeare; A few items from his [Shakespeare's] Journal, and a sample of his own Memoirs by himself;' A Song to her owne Lovynge Willie Shakspeare,' by 'Anna Hatheway;' 'To the Belovyd of the Muses and Mee,' by Anna Hatheway;" a letter 'To Master William Benson,' by W. S.;' and To the peerlesse Anna, magnette of my affectionnes.' It is a rare volume, but Mr. Rolfe