LORD YESTER.

1646-1713.

66

John Hay, tenth Lord Yester, third Earl and second Marquis of Tweeddale, was, in the times of William III. and Queen Anne, best known as an active politician. He married the only daughter of the famous Duke of Lauderdale, and seems to have inherited, along with that nobleman's great wealth, no small part of his influence in the state. At the head of the party known as the Squadrone Volante, he took a large share in effecting the union of the kingdoms. Macky, who wrote in the beginning of the 18th century, mentions him as a short brown man," very modest, but hot when piqued, a great promoter of the trade and welfare of his country. His single known composition, which is highly praised by Veitch as "the earliest remaining Tweeddale song," was printed first by Herd in 1776. Its air, which, like several others, has been attributed to David Rizzio, is given by Chambers in his Songs of Scotland prior to Burns. It was adopted by Gay for one of the lyrics in his opera of "Polly" in 1729. Neidpath Castle, near Peebles, which then belonged to the family, was probably the scene of the song.

TWEEDSIDE.

WHEN Maggie and I were acquaint
I carried my noddle fu' hie;
Nae lintwhite on a' the green plain,
Nae gowdspink1 sae happy as me.

But I saw her sae fair, and I lo❜ed,

I wooed, but I cam' nae great speed;
So now I maun wander abroad,

And lay my banes far frae the Tweed.

I goldfinch.

To Maggie my love I did tell,

Saut tears did my passion express ; Alas! for I lo'ed her o'erweel,

And the women lo'e sic a man less. Her heart it was frozen and cauld,

Her pride had my ruin decreed ; Therefore I will wander abroad,

And lay my banes far frae the Tweed.

LADY GRIZEL BAILLIE.

1665-1746.

One of the most romantic and best known incidents of the times of persecution in Scotland is that of the hiding and escape of Sir Patrick Hume of Marchmont. Hume had been concerned in the intrigues against the succession of the Catholic Duke of York, and on that prince's ascent to the throne as James VII., lay in peril of his life. Strict search was made for him, but without success. His first place of concealment was the family vault in Polwarth Kirk. Here, night after night, braving kirkyard bogles and other terrors, his daughter Grizel brought him such provisions as she was able to abstract without the notice of the servants. Amid the darkness of the charnelhouse, he beguiled the hours by repeating to himself George Buchanan's Latin version of the Psalms. Afterwards he lay in a pit which Grizel with her own hands dug for him under a bed on the ground-floor of their house; and at last he escaped abroad. During their exile Grizel appears to have been the mainstay of the impoverished household-cooking, cleaning, mending, and going to mill and market. This, too, while she had anxieties enough of her own; for her lover, George Baillie of Jerviswood, to whom she was deeply attached, lay also under ban of the Government. After the Revolution, however, she had her reward. The exiles then returned home, her father, after holding some of the highest offices of state under King William, was created Earl of Marchmont, and in 1692 she herself was married to the man of her heart.

Her daughter, Lady Murray of Stanhope, has told the story of her life in a memoir published in 1822. It is repeated also with historical details, in Tytler's Worthies. Lady Murray possessed a MS. volume in which Grizel, during the exile in Holland, had been accustomed to set down the songs she composed. Only two of these pieces, however, are now known to exist. "Werena my heart licht was printed first in Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany and the Orpheus Caledonius. It has been praised as one of the most pathetic ballads in the language, and its eighth and ninth stanzas acquire a further interest from the fact that Burns

applied them to his own forlorn condition in his last sad days at
Dumfries.
""
"The Ewe-buchtin's bonnie was first printed on a
broadsheet by C. K. Sharpe, with an air composed for it by his
father at the age of seven. To this fragment eight additional
stanzas were added by Thomas Pringle in the beginning of the
present century, and the whole together forms the well-known
song. Both pieces with their airs are printed in Chambers'
Songs of Scotland prior to Burns.

I built.

2 path.

3 promised.

4 sister.

"WERENA MY HEART LICHT I WAD DEE."

THERE was ance a may, and she lo'ed na men;
See biggit her bonnie bouir doun i' yon glen;
But now she cries Dule and a well-a-day!
Come doun the green gate and come here away.

When bonnie young Johnnie cam' ower the sea
He said he saw naething sae bonnie as me;
He hecht3 me baith rings and monie braw things;
And werena my heart licht I wad dee.

He had a wee tittie that lo'ed na me,
Because I was twice as bonnie as she;

She raised sic a pother 'twixt him and his mother,
That werena my heart licht I wad dee.

The day it was set and the bridal to be

5 sudden illness. The wife took a dwam5 and lay doun to dee;

She maned, and she graned, out o' dolour and pain,
Till he vowed that he ne'er wad see me again.

His kin was for ane o' a higher degree,

Said, what had he to do wi' the like o' me?
Albeit I was bonnie, I wasna for Johnnie:

And werena my heart licht I wad dee.

They said I had neither cow nor calf,
Nor dribbles o' drink rins through the draff,
Nor pickles o' meal rins through the mill-e'e;
And werena my heart licht I wad dee.

His tittie she was baith wily and slee,

She spied me as I cam' ower the lea,
And then she ran in and made a loud din;
Believe your ain een an ye trow na me.

His bannet stood aye fu' round on his brow—
His auld ane looked aye as weel as some's new;
But now he lets 't wear ony gate it will hing,
And casts himsel' dowie upon the corn-bing.

And now he gaes drooping about the dykes
And a' he dow do is to hund the tykes2;
The live-lang nicht he ne'er steeks 3 his e'e;
And werena my heart licht I wad dee.

Were I young for thee as I ha'e been

We should ha'e been gallopin' doun on yon green,
And linkin' it on the lily-white lea;

And wow gin I were but young for thee!

1 way.

2 dogs.

3 closes.

4 going arm-in

arm.