are only a younger brother's fortune in our family), I am determined, if my Dumfries business fail me, to return inte partnership with him, and at our leisure take another farm in the neighbourhood.

I assure you I look for high compliments from you and Charlotte on this very sage instance of my unfathomable, incomprehensible wisdom. Talking of Charlotte, I must tell her that I have, to the best of my power, paid her a poetic compliment now completed. The air is admirable : true old Highland. It was the tune of a Gaelic song which an Inverness lady sung me when I was there; I was so charmed with it that I begged her to write me a set of it from her singing; for it had never been set before. I am fixed that it shall go in Johnson's next number; so Charlotte and you need not spend your precious time in contradicting me. I won't say the poetry is first-rate ; though I am convinced it is very well; and, what is not always the case with compliments to ladies, it is not only sincere, but just.

[Here follows the song of 'The Banks of the Devon.' Vol. II. p. 243.]

See

R. B.

No. LXXVI.

TO REV. JOHN SKINNER.

EDINBURGH, October 25, 1787.

REVEREND AND VENERABLE SIR,

ACCEPT, in plain dull prose, my most sincere thanks for the best poetical compliment I ever received. I assure you Sir, as a poet, you have conjured up an airy demon of vanity in my fancy, which the best abilities in your other capacity would be ill able to lay. I regret, and while I live I shall regret, that when I was in the north, I had not the pleasure of paying a younger brother's dutiful respect to the author

66

of the best Scotch song ever Scotland saw-' Tullochgorum's my delight!' The world may think slightingly of the craft of song-making, if they please, but, as Job says— "O that mine adversary had written a book!"—let them try. There is a certain something in the old Scotch songs, a wild happiness of thought and expression, which peculiarly marks them, not only from English songs, but also from the modern efforts of song-wrights, in our native manner and language. The only remains of this enchantment, these spells of the imagination, rest with you. Our true brother, Ross of Lochlee, was likewise 66 owre cannie"-a "wild warlock"-but now he sings among the "sons of the morning."

I have often wished, and will certainly endeavour, to form a kind of common acquaintance among all the genuine sons of Caledonian song. The world, busy in low prosaic pursuits, may overlook most of us; but reverence thyself." The world is not our peers, so we challenge the jury. We can lash that world, and find ourselves a very great source of amusement and happiness independent of that world.

There is a work going on in Edinburgh, just now, which claims your best assistance. An engraver in this town has set about collecting and publishing all the Scotch songs, with the Music, that can be found. Songs in the English language, if by Scotchmen, are admitted, but the music must all be Scotch. Drs Beattie and Blacklock are lending a hand, and the first musician in town presides over that department. I have been absolutely crazed about it, collecting old stanzas, and every information remaining respecting their origin, authors, &c. &c. This last is but a very fragment business; but at the end of his second number-the first is already published—a small account will be given of the authors, particularly to preserve those of latter times. Your three songs, Tullochgorum,' 'John of Badenyon,' and Ewie wi' the crookit Horn,' go in this second number. I was determined, before I got your letter, to write you, begging that you would let me know where the

editions of these pieces may be found, as you would wish them to continue in future times: and if you would be so kind to this undertaking as send any songs, of your own or others, that you would think proper to publish, your name will be inserted among the other authors,-" Nill ye, will ye." One half of Scotland already give your songs to other authors. Paper is done. I beg to hear from you; the sooner the better, as I leave Edinburgh in a fortnight or three weeks.-I am,

With the warmest sincerity, Sir,

Your obliged humble servant,

I will defend my conduct in giving you this trouble, on the best of Christian principles-"Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them." -I shall certainly, among my legacies, leave my latest curse to that unlucky predicament which hurried—tore me away from Castle Gordon. May that obstinate son of Latin prose [Nicol] be curst to Scotch mile periods, and damned to seven league paragraphs; while Declension and Conjugation, Gender, Number, and Tense, under the ragged banners of Dissonance and Disarrangement, eternally rank against him in hostile array.

Allow me, Sir, to strengthen the small claim I have to your acquaintance, by the following request. An engraver, James Johnson, in Edinburgh, has, not from mercenary views, but from an honest Scotch enthusiasm, set about

collecting all our native songs and setting them to music; particularly those that have never been set before. Clarke, the well-known musician, presides over the musical arrangement, and Drs Beattie and Blacklock, Mr Tytler of Woodhouselee, and your humble servant to the utmost of his small power, assist in collecting the old poetry, or sometimes for a fine air make a stanza when it has no words. The brats, too tedious to mention, claim a parental pang from my bardship. I suppose it will appear in Johnson's second number the first was published before my acquaintance with him. My request is- Cauld Kail in Aberdeen' is one intended for this number, and I beg a copy of his Grace of Gordon's words to it, which you were so kind as to repeat to me. You may be sure we won't prefix the author's name, except you like, though I look on it as no small merit to this work that the names of so many of the authors of our old Scotch songs, names almost forgotten, will be inserted. I do not well know where to write to you -I rather write at you; but if you will be so obliging, immediately on receipt of this, as to write me a few lines, I shall perhaps pay you in kind, though not in quality. Johnson's terms are:-each number a handsome pocket volume, to consist at least of a hundred Scotch songs, with basses for the harpsichord, &c. The price to subscribers 5s. ; to non-subscribers 6s. He will have three numbers I conjecture.

My direction for two or three weeks will be at Mr William Cruikshank's, St James's-square, New-town, Edinburgh.

I am,
Sir,

Yours to command,

R. B.

No. LXXVIII.

TO JAMES HOY, ESQ. GORDON CASTLE.*

DEAR SIR,

EDINBURGH, 6th November, 1787.

I WOULD have wrote you immediately on receipt of your kind letter, but a mixed impulse of gratitude and esteem whispered to me that I ought to send you something by way of return. When a poet owes anything, particularly

The following sketch of Mr Hoy appeared shortly after his death in the Inverness Courier, of April 30, 1828, written by our talented friend, Mr Robert Carruthers, editor of that Journal :

"The late Mr James Hoy, librarian to the duke of Gordon, was, in many respects, a singular and original character. In goodness of heart, and simplicity of manners, he was not unlike Dominie Sampson himself; and, during the long period of fortysix years, during which he was the inmate of a ducal mansion, he lost not a shade of his originality, or abated one jot of his stoical indifference to riches. The love of learning and of virtue which distinguished Mr Hoy, added to his simple and primitive habits, rendered him universally respected and noted in the neighbourhood of Gordon Castle; and in the noble family in which he resided, he maintained with all the same familiar footing that his celebrated prototype, whom we have named above, preserved at Ellangowan. Mr Hoy was born at Haining, in Selkirkshire, in the year 1747. His father was gardener to Pringle of Haining, or Clifton, afterwards Lord Ailmore, one of the lords of session, and his lordship's daughter Miss Violet Pringle, observing young Hoy to be a steady sedate lad, had him educated, according to his parents' wishes, for the dissenting church. Lord Ailmore becoming blind, young Hoy was engaged to be his reader and companion. Even at this early period, he must have discovered considerable signs of scientific genius, for he had an offer to go to Ireland with Banks and Solander, as botanist, and to assist in other departments of science.

"It was as a sort of literary companion, and as one able to scale the different heights and bearings round Gordon Castle, that Mr Hoy was recommended to the duke, and scarcely any other situation could have been so admirably calculated to promote his own happiness; for, as his whole enjoyment was in books, so that which was his delight now became his duty. To him the charge of the duke's library was committed. It became the castle of which he was appointed governor, and he was never out of his garrison ex