Volume V Part 40 (2/2)

By his parents, who were possessed of considerable means, he was well educated at the best schools in his native district. He became a seaman in his seventeenth year; and while on board composed verses as a relief to labour, and for the entertainment of his s.h.i.+pmates. In 1789 he quitted the seafaring life, and commenced to itinerate for subscribers to enable him to publish his poems. Through the influence of the Earl of Buchan, to whom he was recommended by his talents, he procured an officer's commission in the 78th Highland Regiment. He latterly accepted the situation of Postmaster in a provincial town in Ireland. The date of his death is unknown, but he is understood to have attained an advanced age. His habits were exemplary, and he was largely imbued with feelings of hospitality.

THE SONG OF THE KILT.

My darling is the philabeg, With scarlet hosen for the leg, And the spotted curtal coat so trig, And the head blue-bonneted.

The wimpled kilt be mine to wear, Confusion take the breechen gear, My limbs be fetterless and bare, And not like Saxon donnot-led.[16]

Oh, well I love the _eididh_[17] free, When it sends me bounding on the lea, Or up the brae so merrily, There's ne'er a darg that wonnet speed.

Give me the plaid, and on the hill I 'll watch my turn, a se'ennight's spell, And not a s.h.i.+ver from the chill Shall pierce my trusty coverlet.

And for the tartan's lively flame, In glen or clachan 'tis the same, Alike it pleases la.s.s and dame-- Unmatched its glories ever yet.

Be mine in Highland graith array'd, With weapon trim the glens to tread, And rise a stag of foremost head, Then let him tent my culiver.

And when I marshal to the feast, With deer-skin belt around my waist, And in its fold a dirk embraced, Then Roland match shall Oliver.

FOOTNOTES:

[16] Hen-pecked (Sc.), from _donned_, silly woman.

[17] Highland garb.

JOHN CAMPBELL.

John Campbell (Ian Ban), overseer on the estate of s.h.i.+rvain, Argyles.h.i.+re, was born about the year 1705, in the parish of Gla.s.sary, in the same county. He was entirely uneducated in youth, and never attained any knowledge of the English language. Becoming intimately acquainted with the Scriptures in his vernacular language, he paraphrased many pa.s.sages in harmonious verse; but, with the exception of fifteen hymns or sacred lays which were recovered from his recitation by the poet Duncan Kennedy, the whole have perished. The hymns of John Campbell retain much popularity among the Gael.

THE STORM BLAST.

Oh, say not 'tis the March wind! 'tis a fiercer blast that drives The clouds along the heavens, 'tis a feller sweep that rives The image of the sun from man; a scowling tempest hurls Our world into a chaos, and still it whirls and whirls.

It is the Boreal blast of sin, else all were meek and calm, And Creation would be singing still its old primeval psalm.

Woe for the leaf of human life! it flutters in the sere, And what avails its dance in air, with dust and down-come near?

That airy dance, what signifies the madness that inspires?

The king, the clown, alike is borne along, alike expires.

Come let us try another weird--the tempest let us chain; A bridle for the pa.s.sions ho! for giant pride a rein!

Thus quelleth grace the master-craft that was the cause of all The ruin that befell us in the whirlwind of the Fall.

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