* boy. sharp. But lest he learn the callan * tricks An' faith I muckle doubt him- As lieve then, ‡ I'd have then, Your clerkship he should sair, § Not fitted otherwhere. Altho' I say't, he's gleg || enough, Ye'll catechise him, every quirk, An' shore T him weel wi' "hell;" An' gar him follow to the kirk— Frae hame this comin Friday, My word of honour I hae gi'en, To try to get the twa to gree, I ken he weel a snick can draw, §§ † natural rings on the cow's horns. willingly. ‡‡ earnest of a bargain. § serve **Dow's Inn. tt avaricious reptile. An' if a Devil be at a', To phrase you an' praise you, [This off-hand production explains itself. The poet was about to part with one of the boys on his farm, whose services were coveted by "Master Tootie," a dishonest dealer in cows. The boy had also attracted the attention of Gavin Hamilton, and Burns, who much preferred that the boy should serve Hamilton, wrote this note to him by way of warning. In the text, the cowdealer is charged with the dishonest practice of scraping off the natural ridges from the horns of cattle to disguise their age. Another definition of "a sneck-drawer " is a thief who will steal imperceptibly into a house by gently drawing the sneck or bar.] VERSIFIED REPLY TO AN INVITATION. SIR, Yours this moment I unseal, And faith I'm gay and hearty! To tell the truth and shame the deil, But Foorsday, sir, my promise leal, If on a beastie I can speil, Or hurl in a cartie. Yours, ROBERT BURNS. MAUCHLIN, Monday night, 10 o'clock. [The English reader may be here informed that Thursday is, in some parts of Scotland, pronounced as written in line fifth of the verses; and it is necessary to explain that "Bartie" is one of the many names given to the devil by Ayrshire peasants.] SONG-WILL YE GO TO THE INDIES, MY MARY? Tune-"Ewe-Bughts, Marion." WILL ye go to the Indies, my Mary, O sweet grows the lime and the orange, But a' the charms o' the Indies I hae sworn by the Heavens to my Mary, O plight me your faith, my Mary, We hae plighted our troth, my Mary, In mutual affection to join ; And curst be the cause that shall part us! [This song, addressed to the living Mary Campbell, was composed at some date apparently from the middle of March to 14th May 1786. Whether she was then serving as a nursery-maid with Gavin Hamilton, in Mauchline, or in service elsewhere, it is impossible to determine. The popular belief is that Mary was byres-woman or dairy-maid at Coilsfield House, when Burns set his affections on her; but that idea has no foundation that we are aware of, beyond a traditional conjecture. The poet, in his autobiography, after referring to his distraction caused by Jean's supposed "perfidy," says "I gave up my part of the farm to my brother, and made what little preparation was in my power for Jamaica; but before leaving my native country for ever, I resolved to publish my poems." On 20th March, he arranged to meet Robert Muir at Kilmarnock, to forward that object; and on 3rd April, he was just "sending his proposals to the press." One would conclude that the work of arranging and preparing his poems for the printer-not to mention his industrious composing of fresh poems to fill the volume-was enough to occupy his head and hands, without the introduction of the Highland Mary episode at such a time. Nevertheless, he did manage, amid all these engagements, to cultivate the "pretty long tract of reciprocal attachment" which preceded the final parting with Mary on Sunday, 14th May. Such were the strange circumstances under which this song was composed.] MY HIGHLAND LASSIE, Q. NAE gentle* dames, tho' ne'er sae fair, Chorus. Within the glen sae bushy, O, But fickle fortune frowns on me, Altho' thro' foreign climes I range, * high-born. For her I'll dare the billow's roar, She has my heart, she has my hand, Farewell the glen sae bushy, O! [The accompanying cuts represent very faithfully the inscriptions and symbolic markings on the bible presented by Burns to Mary at their parting. The printer's date on the title-page is 1782. When Mary died in October 1786, the volumes were taken care of by her mother, who survived till August 1828. Several years before that event, she had presented the bible to Mary's surviving sister, Anne, the wife of James Anderson, a stone-mason. That generation had passed away, when the precious relic, together with a lock of Highland Mary's hair, turned up at Montreal, in Canada, about the year 1840, whither they had been carried by William Anderson, a son of Mary's sister. Several Scottish residents of that city subscribed and purchased the relics from Anderson, and deposited them in the poet's monument at Ayr on 1st January 1841. An examination of those sacred relics suggests the probability that poor Mary, on seeing the certain approach of death, had wilfully erased her own name and that of her poet lover, by wetting the writing and drawing her fingers across it, obliterating the surnames as they now appear. The likelihood is, that Burns, in the whirl of excitement which immediately followed the "Second Sunday of May" 1786, forgot his vows to poor Mary, and that she, heartsore at his neglect, deleted the names from this touching memorial of their secret betrothment. Notwithstanding all the gossip that has been risked on the subject, our impression is that— "She never told her love, But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud, Feed on her damask cheek "— that, in short, she came to the same conclusion as poor Olivia, in the " Vicar of Wakefield," did : "The only art to give repentance to her lover, And wring his bosom, is to die." |