Leisters kipper, makes a shift

To shoot a muir-fowl in the drift;
Water-bailiffs, rangers, keepers,

He can wauk when they are sleepers;
Not for bountith or reward

Dare ye mell wi' Donald Caird.

Donald Caird's come again!
Donald Caird's come again!
Gar the bagpipes hum amain,
Donald Caird's come again.

Donald Caird can drink a gill
Fast as hostler-wife can fill;
Ilka ane that sells gude liquor
Kens how Donald bends a bicker;
When he's fou he's stout and saucy,
Keeps the cantle of the cawsey;
Highland chief and Lawland laird
Maun gie room to Donald Caird!

Donald Caird's come again!
Donald Caird's come again!
Tell the news in brugh and glen,
Donald Caird's come again.

Steek the amrie, lock the kist,
Else some gear may weel be mist;
Donald Caird finds orra things

Where Allan Gregor fand the tings;
Dunts of kebbuck, taits of woo,

Whiles a hen and whiles a sow,
Webs or duds frae hedge or yard-

"Ware the wuddie, Donald Caird!

Donald Caird's come again!
Donald Caird's come again!
Dinna let the Shirra ken
Donald Caird's come again.

On Donald Caird the doom was stern,
Craig to tether, legs to airn;

But Donald Caird wi' mickle study,
Caught the gift to cheat the wuddie;
Rings of airn, and bolts of steel,
Fell like ice frae hand and heel!
Watch the sheep in fauld and glen,
Donald Caird's come again!

Donald Caird's come again!
Donald Caird's come again!
Dinna let the Justice ken
Donald Caird's come again!

'[Mr. D. Thomson, of Galashiels, produced a parody on this song at an annual dinner of the manufacturers there, which Sir Walter Scott usually attended; and the Poet was highly amused with a sly allusion to his two-fold character of Sheriff of Selkirkshire, and author-suspect of "Rob Roy," in the chorus,

"Think ye, does the Shinra ken
Rob M'Gregor's come again?"]

MACKRIMMON'S LAMENT.

AIR-"Cha till mi tuille." 2

Mackrimmon, hereditary piper to the Laird of Macleod, is said to have composed this Lament when the Clan was about to depart upon a distant and dangerous expedition. The Min` strel was impressed with a belief, which the event verified, that he was to be slain in the approaching feud; and hence the Gaelic words, "Cha till mi tuille; ged thillis Macleod, cha till Mackrimmon," “I shall never return; although Macleod returns, yet Mackrimmon shall never return!" The piece is but too well known, from its being the strain with which the emigrants from the West Highlands and Isles usually take leave of their native shore.

MACLEOD'S wizard flag from the grey castle sallies, The rowers are seated, unmoor'd are the galleys; Gleam war-axe and broadsword, clang target and quiver,

As Mackrimmon sings, "Farewell to Dunvegan for ever!

Farewell to each cliff, on which breakers are foaming; Farewell, each dark glen, in which red-deer are roam

ing;

Farewell, lonely Skye, to lake, mountain, and river; Macleod may return, but Mackrimmon shall never!

"Farewell the bright clouds that on Quillan are sleeping;

Farewell the bright eyes in the Dun that are weeping;

[Written for Albyn's Anthology, vol. ii. 1818.] 2" We return no more."

To each minstrel delusion, farewell!-and for ever Mackrimmon departs, to return to you never!

The Banshee's wild voice sings the death-dirge before me,1

The pall of the dead for a mantle hangs o'er me; But my heart shall not flag, and my nerves shall not shiver,

Though devoted I go-to return again never!

"Too oft shall the notes of Mackrimmon's bewailing
Be heard when the Gael on their exile are sailing;
Dear land! to the shores, whence unwilling we sever,
Return-return-return shall we never!

Cha till, cha till, cha till sin tuille!
Cha till, cha till, cha till sin tuille,

Cha till, cha till, cha till sin tuille,

Gea thillis Macleod, cha till Mackrimmon!"

1

ON ETTRICK FOREST'S MOUN

TAINS DUN."

ON Ettrick Forest's mountains dun,

'Tis blithe to hear the sportsman's gun,

' [See a note on Banshee, Lady of the Lake, ante, vol. iii. p.

109.]

Written after a week's shooting and Poet had been engaged with some friends. these verses set to music in Mr. Thomson's 1822.]

fishing, in which the

[The reader may see Scottish Melodies for

1

And seek the heath-frequenting brood
Far through the noonday solitude;
By many a cairn and trenched mound,
Where chiefs of yore sleep lone and sound,
And springs, where grey-hair'd shepherds tell,
That still the fairies love to dwell.

Along the silver streams of Tweed,
'Tis blithe the mimic fly to lead,
When to the hook the salmon springs,
And the line whistles through the rings;
The boiling eddy see him try,

Then dashing from the current high,
Till watchful eye and cautious hand
Have led his wasted strength to land.
'Tis blithe along the midnight tide,
With stalwart arm the boat to guide;
On high the dazzling blaze to rear;
And heedful plunge the barbed spear;
Rock, wood, and scaur, emerging bright,
Fling on the stream their ruddy light,
And from the bank our band appears
Like Genii, arm'd with fiery spears.1

'Tis blithe at eve to tell the tale,
How we succeed, and how we fail,
Whether at Alwyn's lordly meal,

1 [See the famous salmon-spearing scene in Guy Mannering.— Waverley Novels, vol. iii., p. 259-63.]

2 Alwyn, the seat of the Lord Somerville; now, alas! untenanted, by the lamented death of that kind and hospitable nobleman, the author's nearest neighbour and intimate friend. [Lord S. died in February, 1819.]