Sir Charles Murray of Ratcliffe, too,
His sister's son was he;

Sir David Lamb, so well esteemed,
But saved he could not be.

And the Lord Maxwell, in like case,
Did with Earl Douglas die ;
Of twenty hundred Scottish spears,
Scarce fifty-five did fly.

Of fifteen hundred Englishmen,
Went home but fifty-three;
The rest in Chevy Chace were slain,
Under the greenwood tree.

Next day did many widows come,
Their husbands to bewail;

They washed their wounds in brinish tears,
But all would not prevail.

Their bodies, bathed in purple gore,
They bore with them away;

They kissed them dead a thousand times,
When they were clad in clay.

The news was brought to Edinburgh,
Where Scotland's king did reign,
That brave Earl Douglas suddenly

Was with an arrow slain:

"O heavy news!" King James did say,

66

Scotland can witness be,

I have not any captain more

Of such account as he."

Like tidings to King Henry came,

Within as short a space,

That Percy of Northumberland

Was slain in Chevy Chace.

"Now God be with him," said our king,

"Sith 'twill no better be;

I trust I have within my realm,
Five hundred as good as he.

(1) Sith-since. Another form is silhence, whence came since.

"Yet shall not Scots nor Scotland say,
But I will vengeance take;
I'll be revenged on them all,

For brave Earl Percy's sake."

This vow full well the king performed,
After, at Humbledown;

In one day fifty knights were slain,
With lords of high renown;

And of the rest, of small account,
Did many hundreds die.

Thus ended the hunting of Chevy Chace,
Made by the Earl Percy.

God save the king! and bless this land
With plenty, joy, and peace;
And grant, henceforth, that foul debate3
"Twixt noblemen may cease.

FEMALE NAMES.

IN Christian world MARY the garland wears;
REBECCA Sweetens on a Hebrew's ear;
Quakers for pure PRISCILLA are more clear;
And the light Gaul by amorous NINON swears.

(1) Humbledown-Humbleton, or Homildon Hill, in Northumberland, where a battle took place in 1402, in which the Earl of Northumberland and his son, Hotspur, gained a complete victory over the Scots.

(2) Thus ended-This battle at Homildon Hill, which was occasioned by the hunting in Chevy Chace, is called the ending of the hunting.

(3) Debate-this word, formerly used to denote every kind of contest, has in course of time come to mean verbal strife only.

Having displayed in the beginning of this ballad the tributes of praise which its merits have elicited, it is but fair to add, at the close, a contrary opinion delivered by a great authority. Dr. Johnson, in his "Life of Addison," while ridiculing Addison for having praised the ballad in the "Spectator," speaks of the "chill and lifeless imbecility of the poem," and adds:-" The story cannot possibly be told in a manner that shall make less impression on the mind:"—an opinion which, when compared with Dr. Percy's, given in a former note, proves how widely "doctors" may "differ."

Among the lesser lights how Lucy1 shines!
What air of fragrance ROSAMOND throws round!
How like a hymn doth sweet CECILIA Sound!
Of MARTHAS, and of ABIGAILS, few lines
Have bragged in verse.

Of coarsest household stuff
Should homely JOAN be fashioned. But can
You BARBARA resist, or MARIAN?

And is not CLARE for love excuse enough?
Yet, by my faith in numbers, I profess,
These all, than Saxon EDITH, please me less.

Lamb.

SWIMMING.2

CHEERED by the milder beam, the sprightly youth
Speeds to the well-known pool, whose crystal depth
A sandy bottom shows. Awhile he stands
Gazing the inverted landscape, half afraid
To meditate the blue profound below;
Then plunges headlong down the circling flood,
His ebon tresses and his rosy cheek

Instant emerge; and through the obedient wave,
At each short breathing by his lip repelled,
With arms and legs according well, he makes,
As humour leads, an easy winding path;
While, from his polished sides, a dewy light
Effuses on the pleased spectators round.
This is the purest exercise of health,
The kind refresher of the summer heats;
Nor, when cold Winter keens the brightening flood,
Would I, weak-shivering, linger on the brink.

(1) Lucy-from the Latin lux, lucis, light. The graceful ingenuity displayed in this and the next two lines well deserves attention. "Among the lesser lights how Lucy shines," is exceedingly apt, and scarcely less so, "What air of fragrance Rosamond (from the Latin rosa, rose, and munda, pure or sweet) throws round." (2) This passage is extracted from the "Summer" of Thomson's " Seasons." (3) Gazing i. e. gazing at. This licence of leaving out words is very frequently employed by Thomson. See below, "headlong down the circling flood," i. e. into the flood; and "the limbs knit," i. e. became knit or compacted into strength.

E

Thus life redoubles; and is oft preserved
By the bold swimmer, in the swift illapse1
Of accident disastrous. Hence the limbs
Knit into force; and the Roman arm
That rose victorious o'er the conquered earth,
First learned, while tender, to subdue the wave.
Even2 from the body's purity, the mind
Receives a secret sympathetic aid.

Thomson.

(1) Illapse-sliding into, occurrence. This "swift illapse of accident disastrous," is a very pedantic and unpleasing expression.

(2) Even the word "even" belongs to the next clause, though for convenience' sake placed here. The construction in prose would be, From the body's purity, even the mind, &c.

(3) Rays of virtue shine-because tears are frequently the indication of repent

ance.

(4) Love or pity, &c.—all which passions, though so diverse in their character, find relief through the same natural channel.

1

The sage's and the poet's theme,'
In every clime, in every age;
Thou charm'st in fancy's idle dream,
In reason's philosophic page.

That law which moulds a tear,
very

And bids it trickle from its source,

That law preserves the earth a sphere,
And guides the planets in their course.

Rogers.

A PSALM OF LIFE.3

"Be up and doing."

TELL me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal;
"Dust thou art, to dust returnest,"
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Finds us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating

Funeral marches to the grave.

(1) The sage's, &c.—The tear which stimulates the poet's fancy, impels the philosopher to inquire scientifically into its origin, the cause of its shape, trickling down, &c.

(2) Law-the law of gravitation.

(3) "No poet has more beautifully expressed the depth of his conviction, that life is an earnest reality, something with eternal issues and dependencies; that this earth is no scene of revelry, a market of sale, but an arena of contest, and a hall of doom. This is the inspiration of his [Longfellow's] 'Psalm of Life.””— Gilfillan.