Lethington Castle. daughter acted as amanuensis to the aged poet. His familiar style reminds us of that of Lyndsay. Satire on the Town Ladies. Some wifis of the borowstoun And of fine silk their furrit clokis, Their wilicoats maun weel be hewit, I trow wha wald the matter speir, Their woven hose of silk are shawin, Sometime they will beir up their gown, Their collars, carcats, and hause beidis !4 Their shoon of velvet, and their muilis! And some will spend mair, I hear say, 1 Wot, or know not. 4 Beads for the throat. 3 Attire. Leave, burgess men, or all be lost, ALEXANDER MONTGOMERY. ALEXANDER MONTGOMERY was known as a poet in 1568; but his principal work, The Cherry and the Slae, was not published before 1597. The Cherry and the Slae is an allegorical poem, representing virtue and vice. The allegory is poorly managed; but some of Montgomery's descriptions are lively and vigorous; and the style of verse adopted in this poem was afterwards copied by Burns. Divested of some of the antique spelling, parts of the poem seem as modern, and as smoothly versified, as the Scottish poetry of a century and a-half later. The cushat crouds, the corbie cries, To geck there they begin; They deave't me with their din. Can on his May-cock call; The turtle wails on wither'd trees, Repeating, with greeting, His shadow in the well. I saw the hurcheon and the hare The bearded buck clamb up the brae Had trinkled mony a tear; Wherewith their heavy heads declined Some knoping, some dropping Of balmy liquor sweet, Excelling and smelling Through Phoebus' wholesome heat. 1 Cry till their eyes become red. * Burns, in describing the opening scene of his Holy Fair, has The hares were hirpling down the furs.' and, previous to turning clergyman, had studied the law, and frequented the court; but in his latter years he was a stern and even gloomy Puritan. The most finished of his productions is a description of a summer's day, which he calls the Day Estival. The various objects of external nature, characteristic of a Scottish landscape, are painted with truth and clearness, and a calm devotional feeling is spread over the poem. It opens as follows: O perfect light, which shed away Thy glory, when the day forth flies, The shadow of the earth anon Syne in the east, when it is gone, Whilk soon perceive the little larks, The lapwing and the snipe; And tune their song like Nature's clerks, The rivers fresh, the caller streams The condition of the Scottish labourer would seem to have been then more comfortable than at present, and the climate of the country warmer, for Hume describes those working in the fields as stopping at mid-day, noon meat and sleep to take,' and refreshing themselves with caller wine' in a cave, and 'sallads steep'd in oil.' As the poet lived four years in France previous to his settling in Scotland, in mature life, we suspect he must have been drawing on his continental recollections for some of the features in this picture. At length the gloaming comes, the day is spent,' and the poet concludes in a strain of pious gratitude and delight: What pleasure, then, to walk and see The perfect form of every tree The salmon out of cruives and creels, The bells and circles on the weills O sure it were a seemly thing, While all is still and calm, All labourers draw hame at even, Thanks to the gracious God of heaven, KING JAMES VI. In 1584, the Scottish sovereign, KING JAMES VI., ventured into the magic circle of poesy himself, and weak at arguments, and the rules and cautelis' of the royal author are puerile and ridiculous. His majesty's verses, considering that he was only in his eighteenth year, are more creditable to him, and we shall quote one from the volume alluded to. Ane Schort Poeme of Tyme. [Original Spelling.] As I was pansing in a morning aire, And could not sleip nor nawyis take me rest, Did dewlie helse all thame on earth do dwell. As beasts to feid, and birds to sing with beir, Falkland Palace, The favourite early residence of King James VI. published a volume entitled, Essayes of a Prentice in the Divine art of Poesie, with the Rewlis and Cautelis to be pursued and avoided. Kings are generally, as Milton has remarked, though strong in legions, but EARL OF ANCRUM-EARL OF STIRLING. Two Scottish noblemen of the court of James were devoted to letters, namely, the EARL OF ANCRUM (1578-1654) and the EARL OF STIRLING (1580-1640). The first was a younger son of Sir Andrew Ker of Ferniehurst, and he enjoyed the favour of both James and Charles I. The following sonnet by the earl was addressed to Drummond the poet in 1624. It shows how much the union of the crowns under James had led to the cultivation of the English style and language: Sonnet in Praise of a Solitary Life. Sweet solitary life! lovely, dumb joy, That need'st no warnings how to grow more wise By other men's mishaps, nor the annoy Which from sore wrongs done to one's self doth rise. timent, and grace of expression. Drummond wrote a number of madrigals, epigrams, and other short pieces, some of which are coarse and licentious. The general purity of his language, the harmony of his verse, and the play of fancy, in all his principal productions, are his distinguishing characteristics. With more energy and force of mind, he would have been a greater favourite with Ben Jonson-and with posterity. The River of Forth Feasting. What blustering noise now interrupts my sleeps? the most interesting of Gothic ruins; and the whole course of the stream and the narrow glen is like the ground-work of some fairy dream. The first publication of Drummond was a volume of occasional poems; to which succeeded a moral treatise in prose, entitled the Cypress Grove, and another poetical work termed the Flowers of Zion. The death of a lady, to whom he was betrothed, affected him deeply, and he sought relief in change of scene and the excitement of foreign travel. On his return, after an absence of some years, he happened to meet a young lady named Logan, who bore so strong a resemblance to the former object of his affections, that he solicited and obtained her hand in marriage. Drummond's feelings were so intense on the side of the royalists, that the execution of Charles is said to have hastened his death, which took place at the close of the same year, December 1649. Drummond was intimate with Ben Jonson and Drayton; and his acquaintance with the former has been rendered memorable by a visit paid to him at Hawthornden, by Jonson, in the spring of 1619. The Scottish poet kept notes of the opinions expressed by the great dramatist, and chro- This golden people glancing in my sight? nicled some of his personal failings. For this his Whence doth this praise, applause, and love arise; memory has been keenly attacked and traduced. It What load-star draweth us all eyes? should be remembered that his notes were private Am I awake, or have some dreams conspir'd memoranda, never published by himself; and, while To mock my sense with what I most desir'd? their truth has been partly confirmed from other View I that living face, see I those looks, sources, there seems no malignity or meanness in Which with delight were wont t' amaze my brooks? recording faithfully his impressions of one of his most Do I behold that worth, that man divine, distinguished contemporaries. The poetry of Drum- This age's glory, by these banks of mine? mond has singular sweetness and harmony of versi- Then find I true what I long wish'd in vain; fication. He was of the school of Spenser, but less My much-beloved prince is come again. ethereal in thought and imagination. His Tears on So unto them whose zenith is the pole, the Death of Moeliades (Prince Henry, son of James I.) When six black months are past, the sun does roll: was written in 1612; his Wandering Muses, or the So after tempest to sea-tossed wights, River Forth Feasting (a congratulatory poem to King Fair Helen's brothers show their clearing lights: James, on his revisiting Scotland), appeared in 1617, So comes Arabia's wonder from her woods, and placed him among the greatest poets of his age. And far, far off is seen by Memphis' floods; His sonnets are of a still higher cast, have fewer The feather'd sylvans, cloud-like, by her fly, conceits, and more natural feeling, elevation of sen- | And with triumphing plaudits beat the sky; |