him in the selection of his works for publication, writes, in a letter to Dr Blacklock, "He put into my hands a great number of manuscripts in verse, chiefly on religious subjects: I believe Sir Richard Blackmore is not a more voluminous author. He told me that he had never written a single line with a view to publication: but only to amuse a solitary hour."3 The poems which by Dr Beattie's advice were chosen for publication consisted of “Helenore, or the Fortunate Shepherdess," and some songs, among which were, "The Rock and the Wee Pickle Tow," "To the Begging we will go," and "Woo'd and married and a'." They appeared at Aberdeen in 1768,* in one volume 8vo, and a considerable number of subscribers having been procured, the profits of the publication amounted to about twenty pounds; "a sum," says Beattie, “far exceeding his most sanguine expectations, for I believe he would thankfully have sold his whole works for five." To promote the sale, Beattie (whose interest in Ross was excited by the latter's acquaintance with the doctor's father) addressed a letter to the editor of the Aberdeen Journal, together with some verses inscribed to Ross, which are remarkable from being their author's only composition in the Scottish dialect; they have been prefixed to all the subsequent editions of Helenore, and possess much merit. The success of the volume does not seem to have been very rapid, for ten years elapsed before the publication of the second edition. While this was going through the press, Dr Beattie wrote to Ross from Gordon castle, with an invitation from the noble_owners to pay them a visit. Though now eighty years of age, the poet at once accepted the invitation, and took that opportunity of presenting a copy of the second edition of his work, dedicated to the duchess of Gordon. He remained at the castle for some days, says his grandson, and "was honoured with much attention and kindness both by the duke and duchess, and was presented by the latter with an elegant pocket-book, containing a handsome present, when he returned to Lochlee in good health, and with great satisfaction." The next year he experienced the loss of his wife, who died at the advanced age of eighty-two, and to whose memory he erected a tombstone with a poeti cal epitaph. He himself did not long survive on the 20th of May, 1784, Worn out with age and infirmity, being in his eighty-sixth year, he breathed his last, with the composure, resignation, and hope becoming a Christian." Of Ross's numerous family, two sons and a daughter died in early youth, and four daughters survived him. Such are the few facts that constitute the biography of Alexander Ross. His character appears to have been marked by much cheerfulness and simplicity; lowly as was his lot, he found tranquillity and content in it, and the picture of his household piety which has come down to us, is singularly affecting. Regrets have been expressed that a man of his merits should have been allowed to toil on in the humble situation of a parish schoolmaster; but it should be remembered that he was nearly seventy years old before he gave the public proof of his talents, and it may be very doubtful if at that advanced age he would have found in a higher sphere the same peace and happiness which he had so long enjoyed in his Highland glen. It is also gratifying to think that the profits of his publications, trifling as they would now be viewed, were still sufficient to afford him many additional luxuries; and that the fame which his poems received from the world reached his retired home, and secured to him honour from his neighbours, and marks of attention from the few strangers of 3 Forbes' Life of Beattie, i. 119. We may add Dr Beattie's description of Ross at this date: "He is a good humoured, social, happy old man: modest without clownishness, and lively without petulance."

4"The Fortunate Shepherdess, a pastoral tale in the Scottish dialect, by Alexander Ross, Schoolmaster at Lochlee, to which are added a few songs by the author. Aberdeen, printed by and for Francis Douglas-1768."—pp. 150.

rank that found their way to Lochlee. Neither should it be forgotten that his songs became, even in his own day, as they still continue, the favourite dittics of his neighbourhood, and that the poet's ears were gratified by hearing his own verses chanted on the hill-sides in summer, and by the cottage ingle in winter. This is the incense to his genius prized by the poet beyond other earthly rewards, and which cheers him even when stricken by the poverty which is "the badge of all his tribe." Ross left eight volumes of unpublished works, of which an account has been preserved in Campbell's Introduction to the History of Poetry in Scotland, (p. 272 to 284.) The chief of these is a tale in the same measure with the Fortunate Shepherdess, entitled, "The Fortunate Shepherd, or the Orphan." The specimens which are given are too unsatisfactory to permit us to judge if we ought to regret its suppression, which we are informed was owing to the advice of Dr Beattie. "A Dream, in imitation of the Cherry and Slae," and composed in 1753, seems to possess some stanzas of considerable merit. 66 Religious Dialogues," written in 1754, are characterized by Beattie as unfit for publication; and Mr Campbell, certainly a favourable critic, can find no word of commendation for the six pieces which bear the following titles: "A Paraphrase on the Song of Solomon;" "A View of king David's Afflictions ;" "The Shunamite, from 2 Kings iv. ;" "Moses exposed in the Ark of Bulrushes;" "An incitement to Temperance, from a thought of the nice construction of the Human Body;" and "Moses' story continued." This long catalogue seems to have been the origin of Beattie's comparison of Ross with Sir Richard Blackmore. In addition to these there are in the same strain, "The Book of Job rendered into English verse," 1751, and “A Description of the Flood of Noah." A translation of Andrew Ramsay's beautiful poem on the creation seems to possess more merit; and from the specimens given is at least fully equal to that of the notorious Lauder, whose attack on Milton had the effect of attracting attention to Ramsay's works. The list of Ross's unpublished works is closed by a dramatic piece, called "The Shaver," founded on an incident which occurred in Montrose, and by a prose composition, "A Dialogue of the Right of Government among the Scots, the persons George Buchanan and Thomas Maitland." "There are ninety sections in this tract," says Campbell, "and from the slight look I have taken through it I am of opinion it might be rendered a very valuable performance." The specimen given does not indicate the direction of Ross's political sentiments, nor does Campbell supply that information; his grandson tells us that "he was best pleased with such religious discourses as were strictly Calvinistic."

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From the information thus preserved regarding Ross's unpublished writings, there seems little reason to regret their loss. His reputation must be founded on his Fortunate Shepherdess, and the songs which were published along with it. With all its faults, this poem is possessed of a high degree of merit; and, in addition to its local fame, will continue to be esteemed by the student of Scottish poetry. Burns has written of him, "Our true brother, Ross of Lochlee, was a wild warlock;" and "the celebrated Dr Blacklock," says Dr Irving, I have learnt from one of his pupils, regarded it as equal to the pastoral of Ramsay." This last opinion, it is to be feared, will be shared by few; nor is it any strong evidence of its soundness, to say that it was adopted by John Pinkerton, who writes:-" Some of the descriptions are exquisitely natural and fine; the language and thoughts are more truly pastoral, than any I have yet found in any poet, save Theocritus." Ross, indeed, is far inferior to Ramsay in delicacy of feeling, in taste, and in the management of his story. In reading the Fortunate Shepherdess we constantly meet with expressions and allu

as

IV.

2 C

sions of the most unworthy nature. Dr Irving has quoted two lines of this description,

And now the priest to join the pair is come,

But first is welcom'd with a glass o' rum.”

And it were easy to fill a page with similar instances :—

"Now, Mary was as modest as a fleuk,

And at their jeering wist na how to look."

Nor can the reader easily overlook Ross's absurd nomenclature. Thus the hero is honoured with the female name of Rosalind, and Scottish glens are clothed with the classic appellations of Flaviana and Sævitia; which last name, intended by the author to be expressive of fierceness, was, by a typographical error in the first edition, converted into Sœvilia. But the most forcible objection undoubtedly lies in the plot, than which it were difficult to conceive any thing more unpoetical. The early part of the poem is devoted to the description of the love of the hero and heroine, which is beautifully painted in its various stages, growing up from their infancy to their youth, and strengthened by all the love-inspiring incidents and situations of a pastoral life. And at the very moment when the poet has succeeded in completing this beautiful picture of simple affection and guileless innocence, he sets himself to undo the charm, weds the heroine to a richer lover, and sacrifices the hero to a marriage, which his heart cannot approve, and of which the chief object is the recovery of certain sheep and horned cattle. Ross seems to have been aware of the objections which are chargeable against this denouement, and endeavours to obviate them in the preface prefixed to the first edition, by pleading that it is productive of a salutary moral :-" This important lesson is inculcated, that when two young people have come under engagements to one another, no consideration whatever should induce them to break faith, or to promise things incompatible with keeping it entire." It is certainly difficult to see the force of this apology; and Ross's error on this head is the more note-worthy from his taking objection in his invocation to the plot of his model, the Gentle Shepherd:

"Allan bears

The gree himsell, an' the green laurels wears;

We'el mat he brook them, for tho' ye had spair'd
The task to me, Pate might na been a laird.”

It is singular how Ross could have overlooked the circumstance, that Ramsay, in elevating his hero, sacrifices no long-cherished feeling, or former affection; while not only is the Fortunate Shepherdess raised to a similar rank, but this upon the very ruins of an affection, which had twined itself round her heartstrings from her earliest years. We have, perhaps, dwelt too long upon the ungracious task of fault-finding. Ross's chief talent lies, as was remarked by Beattie, in his descriptions of scenery, and of the habits of a rude and pastoral life. Many of these will cope with the best passages in the Gentle Shepherd, or in any of our Scottish poets. We may refer to the description of a valley at noon (at page 28 of the second edition); to the picture of Flaviana, which has been quoted by Sir Walter Scott in the Heart of Mid Lothian; and to the numerous descriptions of morning, evening, and night, scattered through the poem. It must not be concealed, however, that few of the delineations possess that consistency in their parts, completeness, and nice finish, which are to be found in the Gentle Shepherd. Ross's songs, though certainly of a very high

order of merit, have unfortunately been omitted in the more popular editions of his works. This is to be regretted, as they are disfigured by none of the faults of his larger work, and, notwithstanding their length, would be valuable additions to the Scottish song book. It has been already mentioned, that two editions of his work appeared in the author's lifetime; a third was printed at Aberdeen in 1787; a fourth at Edinburgh in 1804, in the same volume with Macneill's Will and Jean, and some other poems: and a fifth appeared at Dundee in 1812. This last has a life prefixed by his grandson; and it is to be regretted that the liberties taken with the text, the omission of the preface, songs, and glossary, should have rendered it so defective. Besides these, there have appeared numerous editions, on coarse paper, and at a low price, to be hawked through the north of Scotland, where they ever find a ready sale. Of the number of these reprints, it is not easy to obtain an account; we believe the last is that published at Aberdeen in 1826. In Aberdeenshire and in Angus, the Mearns and Moray, there is no work more popular than "The Fortunate Shepherdess." It disputes popularity with Burns and the Pilgrim's Progress; is read, in his idle hours, by the shepherd in the glens, and wiles away the weariness of the long winter night, at the crofter's fireside. On its first appearance, Beattie predicted—

"And ilka Mearns and Angus bairn,

Thy tales and sangs by heart shall learn."

The prediction has been amply verified, and a hope which Ross expressed in one of his unpublished poems, has been realized :

a Hence lang, perhaps, lang hence may quoted be,
My hamely proverbs lined wi' blythesome glee ;
Some reader then may say, Fair fa' ye, Ross,'

When, aiblins, I'll be lang, lang dead and gane,
An' few remember there was sick a ane."

ROW, JOHN, a celebrated divine, was descended of a family of some note for the part they had borne in the ecclesiastical history of their country. His grandfather, John Row, had gone abroad in early youth, and the fame of his talents and learning having reached the Vatican, he was in 1559, selected by the Pope as an emissary to watch over the dawning reformation in Scotland. But, in a short time after his return to his native country, he embraced the principles of the reformed religion, and advocated them with much zeal and ability. He was in 1560, appointed minister of Perth, and from that time enjoyed considerable influence in the councils of the reformed clergy, sharing the friendship of Knox, and other distinguished men of that age. His eldest son was for fifty-two years minister of Carnock in Fife, and died at the advanced age of seventy-eight. He was partly author of "The Historie of the Kirk of Scotland from the year 1558, to August in Anno 1637, written by Mr John Row, late minister at Carnock, in the province of Fife and presbyterie of Dunfermline." This is preserved in MS. in the Advocates' library, and has been pronounced by one well fitted to judge, "a very valuable but rather prolix work." The date of the birth of John Row, his second son, the subject of the present memoir has not been preserved, but it may be referred to the latter

dis

The liberties taken with the text, which we complain of, consist in attempts to translate the more obsolete words into English, and in frequent omissions of couplets, without any cernible cause. We have 'shepherd,' for herding;' honest, for sackless; liv'd,' for 'wonn'd ;' 'a burning coal,' for a clear brunt coal,' &c.

1

years of the sixteenth, or more probably to the beginning of the seventeenth century. At a very early period of life he was appointed rector of the grammar school at Perth, and for many years discharged that office with much reputation. He was the first Hebrew scholar of that day, an accomplishment which seems to have been hereditary in the family; his father, it is reported, having "discovered some genius for Hebrew when he was only a child of four or five years old," and his grandfather having been, it is said, the first who publicly taught Hebrew in Scotland. While rector of the Perth school, Row composed his "Hebreæ Linguæ Institutiones Compendiosissimæ et facillimæ in Discipulorum gratiam primum concinnata," which was published at Glasgow in 1644. This work was dedicated to lord chancellor Hay of Kinnoul, to whom he expresses himself obliged for benefits conferred on his father, and for having procured himself the situation he held. After the fashion of the day, the book was prefaced by several commendatory verses; and of these some are from the pen of the celebrated Alexander Henderson, Samuel Rutherford, and John Adamson. The work also bore the record of the unanimous approbation of the faculty of the college of St Leonard in the university of St Andrews. Three years previous to the publication of the "Hebreæ Linguæ Institutiones," Row was by the influence of the famous Andrew Cant appointed one of the ministers of Aberdeen. In 1643, he published a Vocabulary of the Hebrew language, which he dedicated to his new patrons, the town council of Aberdeen. This mark of respect was rewarded by the following ordinance of that body: “20th September, 1643, the counsell considering the panes taken be Mr John Row in teaching the Hebrew tongue, and for setting forth ane Hebrew dictionar, and dedicating the same to the counsell, ordanes the thesaurar to delivar to the said Mr John Row for his paines four hundreth merk Scotts money." In his office of minister of Aberdeen, Row supported the principles of his coadjutor Andrew Cant, and was with him highly obnoxious to the more moderate party of the presbyterians, and to those who still favoured episcopacy. The amusing annalist Spalding, who attended his prelections, loses no opportunity of holding him up to ridicule or detestation; and language seems sometimes to fail him for the expression of his horror at Row's innovations. "One of the town's officers," he relates," caused bring a bairn to the lecture lesson, where Mr John Row had taught, to be baptized; but because this bairn was not brought to him when he was baptizing some other bairns, he would not give baptism; whereupon the simple man was forced to bring back this child unbaptized. The wife lying in child-bed, hearing the child was not baptized, was so angry, that she turned her face to the wall, and deceased immediately through plain displeasure, and the bairn also ere the morn; and the mother, and her bairn in her oxter, were both buried together. Lamentable to see," writes the indignant chronicler," how the people are thus abused!" In 1644, Row was chosen moderator of the provincial assembly at Aberdeen; and the next year, on the approach of Montrose at the head of the royalist forces, he, with Cant and other "prime covenanters," sought refuge with the earl Marischal in the castle of Dunottar. In 1649, the Scottish parliament appointed a committee to remonstrate against the contemplated murder of Charles I., and Row was one of six clergymen nominated to act with the committee. In 1651, a commission, consisting of five colonels from the army of Monk, visited the king's college of Aberdeen, and, among other acts, deposed the principal, Dr Guild;

1 The learned editor of " Memorials of the Family of Row," (a work to which we are indebted for much of the information given in the following memoir) erroneously calls John Row the eldest son of his father.

2 Council Register of Aberdeen, vol, lii. p. 771.