MR. ERSKINE'S SUPPLEMENT.

The following exquisite supplemental Stanzas to the foregoing Ode will be found to commemorate some striking Scottish superstitions omitted by Collins. They are the production of William Erskine, Esq. advocate, and form a Continuation of the Address, by Collins, to the author of Douglas, exhorting him to celebrate the traditions of Scotland.

THY Muse may tell, how, when at evening's close,
To meet her love beneath the twilight shade,
O'er many a broom-clad brae and heathy glade,
In merry mood the village maiden goes :
There, on a streamlet's margin as she lies,
Chanting some carol till her swain appears,
With visage, deadly pale, in pensive guise,
Beneath a wither'd fir his form he rears!1
Shrieking and sad, she bends her eirie flight,
When, mid dire heaths, where flits the taper blue,
The whilst the moon sheds dim a sickly light,
The airy funeral meets her blasted view.
When, trembling, weak, she gains her cottage low,
Where magpies scatter notes of presage wide,
Some one shall tell, while tears in torrents flow,
That, just when twilight dimm'd the green hill's
side,

Far in his lonely shiel her hapless shepherd died.

Let these sad strains to lighter sounds give place! Bid thy brisk viol warble measures gay!

1 The wraith, or spectral appearance, of a person shortly to die, is a firm article in the creed of Scottish superstition.

18

MR. ERSKINE'S SUPPLEMENT.

For see recall'd by thy resistless lay,

Once more the Brownie2 shows his honest face. Hail, from thy wanderings long, my much-loved sprite !

Thou friend, thou lover of the lowly, hail! Tell, in what realms thou sport'st thy merry night, Trail'st the long mop, or whirl'st the mimic flail. Where dost thou deck the much-disorder'd hall, While the tired damsel in Elysium sleeps, With early voice to drowsy workman call,

Or lull the dame while mirth his vigils keeps ? "Twas thus in Caledonia's domes, 'tis said,

Thou plyedst the kindly task in years of yore: At last, in luckless hour, some erring maid

Spread in thy nightly cell of viands store: Ne'er was thy form beheld among their mountains

more. 2

2 The Brownie formed a class of beings, distinct in habit and disposition from the freakish and mischievous elves. He was meagre, shaggy, and wild in his appearance. Thus, Cleland, in his satire against the Highlanders, compares them to

Faunes, or brownies, if ye will,
Or satyres come from Atlas hill.'

In the day-time, he lurked in remote recesses of the old houses which he delighted to haunt; and in the night sedulously employed himself in discharging any laborious task which he thought might be acceptable to the family to whose service he had devoted himself. But, although, like Milton's lubbar fiend, he loves to stretch himself by the fire, he does not drudge from the hope of recompense. On the contrary, so delicate is his attachment, that the offer of reward, but particularly of food, infallibly occasions his disappearance for ever.

When the menials in a Scottish family protracted their vigils around the kitchen fire, Brownie, weary of being ex

Then wake (for well thou canst) that wondrous lay, How, while around the thoughtless matrons sleep, Soft o'er the floor the treacherous fairies creep, And bear the smiling infant far away.

How starts the nurse, when, for her lovely child, She sees at dawn a gaping idiot stare!

O snatch the innocent from demons wild,

And save the parents fond from fell despair! In a deep cave the trusty menials wait,

When from their hilly dens, at midnight's hour, Forth rush the airy elves in mimic state,

And o'er the moonlight heath with swiftness

scour.

In glittering arms the little horsemen shine:*
Last, on a milk-white steed, with targe of gold,
A fay of might appears, whose arms entwine

The lost, lamented child; the shepherds bold The unconscious infant tear from his unhallow'd hold.

cluded from the midnight hearth, sometimes appeared at the door, seemed to watch their departure, and thus admonished them-Gang a' to your beds, sirs, and dinna put out the wee grieshoch (embers).'

It seems no improbable conjecture, that the Brownie is a legitimate descendant of the Lar Familiaris of the ancients.

TO EVENING.

If aught of oaten stop, or pastoral song,
May hope, O pensive Eve, to soothe thine ear,
Like thy own brawling springs,

Thy springs, and dying gales;

O Nymph reserved, while now the bright-hair'd sun
Sits in yon western tent, whose cloudy skirts,
With brede ethereal wove,
O'erhang his wavy bed;

Now air is hush'd, save where the weak-eyed bat
With short shrill shriek flits by on leathern wing;
Or where the beetle winds

His small but sullen horn,

As oft he rises midst the twilight path,
Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum:
Now teach me, maid composed,

To breathe some soften'd strain,

Whose numbers, stealing through thy darkening vale, May not unseemly with its stillness suit;

As, musing slow, I hail

Thy genial loved return!

For when thy folding-star arising shows
His paly circlet, at his warning lamp
The fragrant Hours, and Elves
Who slept in buds the day,

And many a Nymph who wreathes her brows with

sedge,

And sheds the freshening dew; and, lovelier still, The pensive Pleasures sweet,

Prepare thy shadowy car.

Then let me rove some wild and heathy scene;
Or find some ruin midst its dreary dells,
Whose walls more awful nod

By thy religious gleams.

Or, if chill blustering winds, or driving rain,
Prevent my willing feet, be mine the hut,
That, from the mountain's side,

Views wilds, and swelling floods,

And hamlets brown, and dim-discover'd spires; And hears their simple bell; and marks o'er all Thy dewy fingers draw

The gradual dusky veil.

While Spring shall pour his showers, as oft he wont,
And bathe thy breathing tresses, meekest Eve!
While Summer loves to sport
Beneath thy lingering light;

While sallow Autumn fills thy lap with leaves;
Or Winter, yelling through the troublous air,
Affrights thy shrinking train,

And rudely rends thy robes;

So long, regardful of thy quiet rule,
Shall Fancy, Friendship, Science, smiling Peace,
Thy gentlest influence own,

And love thy favourite name!