Volume Ii Part 19 (2/2)
Thou bonny woods, &c.
When winter blaws in sleety showers, Frae aff the norlan' hills sae hie, He lightly skiffs thy bonny bowers, As laith to harm a flower in thee.
Thou bonny wood, &c.
Though Fate should drag me south the line, Or o'er the wide Atlantic sea; The happy hours I 'll ever mind, That I, in youth, hae spent in thee.
Thou bonny wood, &c.
[86] Craigie Lea is situated to the north-west of Paisley.
GOOD NIGHT, AND JOY.[87]
AIR--_”Good night, and joy be wi' you a'.”_
The weary sun 's gaen down the west, The birds sit nodding on the tree; All nature now prepares for rest, But rest prepared there 's none for me.
The trumpet sounds to war's alarms, The drums they beat, the fifes they play,-- Come, Mary, cheer me wi' thy charms, For the morn I will be far away.
Good night, and joy--good night, and joy, Good night, and joy be wi' you a'; For since its so that I must go, Good night, and joy be wi' you a'!
I grieve to leave my comrades dear, I mourn to leave my native sh.o.r.e; To leave my aged parents here, And the bonnie la.s.s whom I adore.
But tender thoughts maun now be hush'd, When danger calls I must obey.
The transport waits us on the coast, And the morn I will be far away.
Good night, and joy, &c.
Adieu, dear Scotia's sea-beat coast!
Though bleak and drear thy mountains be, When on the heaving ocean tost, I 'll cast a wishful look to thee!
And now, dear Mary, fare thee well, May Providence thy guardian be!
Or in the camp, or on the field, I 'll heave a sigh, and think on thee!
Good night, and joy, &c.
[87] We have been favoured, by Mr Matthew Tannahill, with a copy of the above song of his late gifted brother. It is not included in any edition of his poems, but has been printed, through the favour of Mr M.
Tannahill, in the ”Book of Scottish Song.”
HENRY DUNCAN, D.D.
Dr Henry Duncan the distinguished founder of Savings' Banks, and the promoter of various schemes of social economy, we are enabled to record among the contributors to Caledonian minstrelsy. He was descended through both parents from a succession of respectable clergymen of the Scottish Church. His father George Duncan, was minister of Lochrutton in the stewartry of Kircudbright, and the subject of this memoir was born in the manse of that parish, on the 8th October 1774. After a period of training at home under a private tutor, he was sent to the Academy of Dumfries to complete his preparation for the University. At the age of fourteen, he entered as a student the United College of St Andrews, but after an attendance of two years at that seat of learning, he was induced, on the invitation of his relative Dr Currie, to proceed to Liverpool, there to prepare himself for a mercantile profession, by occupying a situation in the banking office of Messrs Heywood. After a trial of three years, he found the avocations of business decidedly uncongenial, and firmly resolved to follow the profession of his progenitors, by studying for the ministry of the Church of Scotland. He had already afforded evidence of ability to grapple with questions of controversial theology, by printing a tract against the errors of Socinianism, which, published anonymously, attracted in the city of Liverpool much attention from the originality with which the usual arguments were ill.u.s.trated and enforced. Of the concluding five years of his academical course, the first and two last were spent at the University of Edinburgh, the other two at that of Glasgow. In 1797, he was enrolled as a member of the Speculative Society of the University of Edinburgh, and there took his turn in debate with Henry Brougham, Francis Horner, Lord Henry Petty afterwards Marquis of Lansdowne, and other young men of genius, who then adorned the academic halls of the Scottish capital. With John Leyden, W. Gillespie afterwards minister of Kells, and Robert Lundie the future minister of Kelso, he formed habits of particular intimacy. From the Presbytery of Dumfries, he obtained licence as a probationer in the spring of 1798, and he thereafter accepted the situation of tutor in the family of Colonel Erskine afterwards Earl of Mar, who then resided at Dalhonzie, near Crieff. In this post he distinguished himself by inducing the inhabitants of the district to take up arms in the defence of the country, during the excitement, which then prevailed respecting an invasion. In the spring of 1799, the parishes of Lochmaben and Ruthwell, both in the gift of the Earl of Mansfield, became simultaneously vacant, and the choice of them was accorded to Mr Duncan by the n.o.ble patron. He preferred Ruthwell, and was ordained to the charge of that parish, on the 19th September.
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