Hold fast thy truth, young soldier. — Gentle That ladies love best-He is young and noble, maiden, Keep you your promise plight-leave age its subtleties, And gray-hair'd policy its maze of falsehood; The Trial. From St. Ronan's Well. 1823. MOTTOES. (1.)-CHAP. II.-THE GUEST. Quis novus hic hospes ? Dido apud Virgilium. Ch'm-maid! The German in the front parlor ! BOOTS's free Translation of the Eneid. (2.)-CHAP. III. There must be government in all society- Rome had her Consuls, Athens had her Archons, Come, let me have thy counsel, for I need it; The Devil hath met his Match. (4.)-CHAP. XI. Nearest of blood should still be next in love; Anonymous. Who left such a treasure of old Scottish lore more, VI. As bitter as gall, and as sharp as a zazor, And feeding on herbs as a Nebuchadnezzar,' His diet too acid, his temper too sour, We'll ransack old Banny for one volume Little Ritson came out with his two volumes more.' more. II. And first, Allan Ramsay, was eager to glean III. His ways were not ours, for he cared not a pin How much he left out, or how much he put in; The truth of the reading he thought was a bore, So this accurate age calls for one volume more. One volume more, &c. IV. Correct and sagacious, then came my Lord Hailes, And castrated Banny in one volume more. One volume more, my friends, one volume But one volume, my friends, one volume more, We'll dine on roast-beef and print one volume more. VII. The stout Gothic yeditur, next on the roll, ume more. One volume more, &c. VIII. Since by these single champions what wonders were done, What more. One volume more, &c. IX. Ancient libels and contraband books, I assure ye, We'll print as secure from Exchequer or Jury; Then hear your Committee and let them count o'er We'll restore Banny's manhood in one volume The Chiels they intend in their three volumes more. He rail'd at the plaid and blasphemed the clay- And the Rob of Dumblane and her Bishops come more, And set Scots by the ears in his one volume more. One volume more, my friends, one volume more, Celt and Goth shall be pleased with one vol ume more. 1 In accordance with his own regimen, Mr. Ritson published a volume entitled, "An Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food as a Moral Duty. 1802." 2 See an account of the Metrical Antiquarian Researches of Pinkerton, Ritson, and Herd, &c. in the Introductory Remarks on Popular Poetry, ante, p. 544, et seq. 3 James Sibbald, editor of Scottish Poetry, &c. "The Yeditur," was the name given him by the late Lord Eldin, then Mr. John Clerk, advocate. The description of him here is very accurate. David Herd, editor of Songs and Historical Ballads. 2 vols. He was called Greysteel by his intimates, from having been long in unsuccessful quest of the romance of that Jame. This club was instituted in the year 1822, for the publication or reprint of rare and curious works connected with the history next; One tome miscellaneous they'll add to your store, Resolving next year to print four volumes more. Four volumes more, my friends, four volumes more; Pay down your subscriptions for four volumes more." and antiquities of Scotland. It consisted, at first, of a very few members, gradually extended to one hundred, at which num ber it has now made a final pause. They assume the name of the Bannatyne Club from George Bannatyne, of whom little is known beyond that prodigious effort which produced his present honors, and is, perhaps, one of the most singular instances of its kind which the literature of any country exhibits. His labors as an amanuensis were undertaken during the time of pestilence, in 1568. The dread of infection had induced him to retire into solitude, and under such circumstances he had the energy to form and execute the plan of saving the literature of the whole nation; and, undisturbed by the general mourn ing for the dead, and general fears of the living, to devote himself to the task of collecting and recording the triumphs of human genius in the poetry of his age and country; thus, amid the wreck of all that was mortal, employing himself in To J. G. Lockhart, Esq. ON THE COMPOSITION OF MAIDA'S EPITAPH. 1824. "Maida Marmorea dormis sub imagine Maida! See Life of Scott, vol. vii. pp. 275-281. "DEAR JOHN,-I some time ago wrote to inform his Fat worship of jaces, misprinted for dormis; But that several Southrons assured me the januam Was a twitch to both ears of Ass Priscian's cranium. By not having writ what I clearly engraved? setter. Thirdly-don't you perceive that I don't care a boddle Although fifty false metres were flung at my noddle, For my back is as broad and as hard as Benlo mon's, And I treat as I please both the Greeks and the Romans; Whereas the said heathens might rather look serious You, perhaps, may observe that one Lionel Be- At a kick on their drum from the scribe of Va guer, In defence of our blunder appears a stout arguer: But at length I have settled, I hope, all these clatters, lerius. And, fourthly and lastly—it is my good pleasure To remain the sole source of that murderous measure. By a rout in the papers-fine place for such So stet pro ratione voluntas-be tractile, matters. I have, therefore, to make it for once my command, sir, Invade not, I say, my own dear little dactyl; course: That my gudeson shall leave the whole thing in To-morrow will see me in town for the wintermy hand, sir, course, And by no means accomplish what James says But not at your door, at the usual hour, sir, you threaten, Some banter in Blackwood to claim your dogLatin. I have various reasons of weight, on my word, sir, My own pye-house daughter's good prog to de vour, sir. Ergo-peace-on your duty, your squeamishness throttle, For pronouncing a step of this sort were absurd, And we'll soothe Priscian's spleen with a canny sir. Firstly, erudite sir, 'twas against your advising preserving the lays by which mortality is at once given to others, and obtained for the writer himself. He informs us of some of the numerous difficulties he had to contend with in this self-imposed task. The volume containing his labors, deposited in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh, is no less than eight hundred pages in length, and very neatly and closely written, containing nearly all the ancient poetry of Scotland now known to exist. This Caledonian association, which boasts several names of distinction, both from rank and talent, has assumed rather a broader foundation than the parent society, the Roxburghe Club in London, which, in its plan, being restricted to the reprinting of single tracts, each executed at the expense of an individual member, it follows as almost a necessary consequence, that no volume of considerable size has emanated from it, and its range has been thus far limited in point of utility. The Bannatyne, holding the same system with respect to the ordinary species of club reprints, levies, moreover, a fund among its members of about £500 a year, expressly to be applied for the editing and printing of works of acknowledged importance, and likely to be attended with expense beyond the reasonable bounds of an individual's contribution. In this way ei her a member of the Club, or a competent person under third bottle. A fig for all dactyls, a fig for all spondees, A fig for dry thrapples, south, north, east, and west, sir, Speates and raxes' ere five for a famishing guest, sir; its patronage, superintends a particular volume, or set of volumes. Upon these occasions, a very moderate number of copies are thrown off for general sale; and those belonging to the Club are only distinguished from the others by being printed on the paper, and ornamented with the decorations, peculiar to the Society. In this way several useful and eminently valuable works have recently been given to the public for the first time, or at least with a degree of accuracy and authenticity which they had never before attained.-Abridged from the ❘ Quarterly Review-ART. Pitcairn's Ancient Criminal Trials. February, 1831. 1 There is an excellent story (but to long for quotation) in the Memoire of the Somervilles (vol. i. p. 240) about an old Lord of that family, who, when he wished preparations to be made for high feasting at his Castle of Cowthally, used to send on a billet inscribed with this laconic phrase," Speates and rates," i. e. spits and ranges. Upon one occasion, Lady Somerville (being newly married, and not yet skilled in her husband's hieroglyphics) read the mandates as spears and jacks, and sent forth 200 armed horsemen, whose appearance on the moors greatly alarmed Lord Somerville and his guest, who happened to be no less a person than King James III.-See SCOTT's Miscellaneous Prose, vol. xxii. p. 312. |