Some shake the pelting dice upon the Round through the vast circumference of broad backgammon. Others, of travell'd elegance, polite, With mingling music Maggie's house surround, And serenade her all the live-long night With song and lyre, and flute's enchanting sound, Chiming and hymning into fond delight The heavy night air that o'ershades the ground; While she, right pensive, in her chamber nook, sky, Scarce can the eye one speck of cloud behold, Save in the East some fleeces bright of dye, That hem the rim of heav'n with woolly gold, Whereon are happy angels wont to lie Lolling, in amaranthine flow'rs enroll'd, That they may spy the precious light of God, Flung from the blessed East o'er the fair Earth abroad. Sits pond'ring on th' advice of little The fair Earth laughs through all her Tommy Puck. boundless range, fruits, and possibly the immediate occasion of the setting up of the Auchinleck press, was a unique copy of the disputation between John Knox and Quentin Kennedy, at Maybole, in 1562, which Sir | Alexander found in the Auchenleck library, and wished to have reprinted in fac-simile for his literary friends. He is connected with the origin of another and more extensive Ayrshire manufacture than that of books— namely, the celebrated Mauchline woodwork, which is affirmed by the Scots Times to have originated in the mending of the snuff-box of a French gentleman, who was a guest at Auchinleck, by an ingenious Mauchline mechanic. Sir Alexander having taken a fancy to it, wished to have one made of the same pattern, and it was made so well that a demand sprung up for more. To this incident the present extensive and beautiful wood-work which is known as Mauchline manufacture owes its existence. It is said that the present President of the Royal Scottish Academy first used his brush in painting the lids of Mauchline snuff-boxes. | frewshires a short time previously. But he did not always act with equal judiciousness; and soon after he took a part in the heated politics of the time which it would be difficult to justify, and for which he paid a melancholy penalty. In politics he was an extreme Tory, and as a partizan of that political section, he wrote a squib, entitled a "New Whig Song," reflecting on the courage of Mr Stuart of Dunearn, who at once challenged him. The meeting took place at Auchtertool, in Fife, on the 26th March 1822, and resulted in Sir Alexander's being mortally wounded. He died next day, at Balmuto, the original seat of the Boswells. Sir Alexander's sense of being in the wrong determined his having resolved, if his opponent missed aim, to fire blank. Stuart escaped to the continent, but gave himself up for trial about a year afterwards, when he was acquitted. Humour is Boswell's chief characteristic as a poet, and his "East Nuik o' Fife" shows how broad, how graphic, and original was his humorous vein. "Jenny's Bawbee" also ranks Sir Alexander's chief claim to remem- with "Tibbie Fowler" and "Kate brance, besides his own contributions | Dalrymple," our best songs, satirising matrimonial fortune-hunting. SKELDON HAUGHS; OR, THE SOW FLITTED. to literature, is his noble efforts in get- White were his locks as drifted snaw; Ilk awfu' tramp he gave the ground, Garr'd aik-trees shake their heads a' round And lions rin hame cowerin'. To shaw his pow'r unto the people, Ance in his arms he took the steeple, Kiss'd it, and ca'd it brither; Syne from its bottom up it wrung, And in the air three times it swung, Spire, bell, and a' thegither! And when he'd swung it merrily, Did clap it down sae clever; Ae king's birth-day, when he was fu', Twa Tangier chaps began to pu' His tails; when, on a sudden, Ane by the richt leg up he grippit, The tither by the neck he snippit, And sent them skyward scuddin'. On earth they ne'er again cam down ; Fell plump, and breath'd his last; Ae day, when he stood near the sea, Was sailing gawcy by-- And then the great ship up he tumml'dHer mast was down, her hulk upwhumml'd, Her keel high i' the lift; Captain and cargo down cam rummlin', Marines, and men, and meat, cam tummlin' Down frae her decks like drift. He had a mammoth for his horse, From Calpe to the Chinese wa' He travell'd in a day or twa; And as he gallop't east, The tower of Babel down he batter'dFor five miles round its bricks were scatter'd, Sic birr was in his beast! But whan he cam to Ecbatan, He soucht na street nor yett, Down-dundering a' he met : What wi' his monster's thunderin' thud, And what wi' brusch, and smusch, and scud, O' rafters, slates, and stanes, Ten thousand folk to dead were devell'd Ten thousand mair were eirthlins levell'd, Half-dead wi' fractur'd banes. He travell'd, too, baith north and south, He tried, too, on his fearsome horse, Weapons are sharp, and hides are tender, And soughin bullets smite and smash; Crawford o' Kerse sat at his yett, " And bye the Kraigans and the Trough, And bye the Knowe and Bright-burn birk, And down upon Dalrymple Kirk- His anxious ee, but firm and fierce, Whan lightsome Will o' Ashyntree Is the Sow flitted?" cried the carle, "Gie me my answer, short and plain, Is the sow flitted? yammerin wean." "The sow, deil tak her, 's oure the water And at their backs the Crawfords batter; The Carrick cowts are cow'd and bitted" "My thumb for Jock ! the Sow is flitted." JENNY'S BAWBEE. I met four chaps yon birks amang Quo' he, ilk cream-faced pawky chiel The first a Captain to his trade, Quo' he, "My goddess, nymph, and queen, Your beauty's dazzled baith my een!" But-Jenny's bawbee. A Lawyer neist, wi' blatherin' gab, JENNY DANG THE WEAVER. At Willie's wedding on the green, And snaw white Sunday mutches; And Jenny dang, Jenny dang, In ilka country dance and reel, The coof would never leave her; Jenny dang, &c. Quo' he, My lass, to speak my mind, I needna seek anither. He humm'd and haw'd, the lass cried Pheugh! And bade the coof no deave her ; And Jenny dang, Jenny dang, EAST NEUK O' FIFE. Auld gudeman, ye're a drucken carte, drucken carle; A' the lang day ye're winkin', drinkin', gapin', gauntin'; |
