Leisters kipper, makes a shift To shoot a muir-fowl in the drift; He can wauk when they are sleepers; 'Dare ye mell wi' Donald Caird. Donald Caird's come again! Donald Caird can drink a gill Donald Caird's come again! Steek the amrie, lock the kist, Where Allan Gregor fand the tings; 'Ware the wuddie, Donald Caird! 1 Donald Caird's come again! On Donald Caird the doom was stern, But Donald Caird wi' mickle study, Donald Caird's come again! 1 [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 Selkirk. shire, and author-suspect of “Rob Roy," in the chorus,— "Think ye, does the Shirra ken 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.] 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,' 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 Cha till, cha till, cha till sin tuille! Cha till, cha till, cha till sin tuille, Gea thillis Macleod, cha till Mackrimmon!" ON ETTRICK FOREST'S MOUN TAINS DUN." ON Ettrick Forest's mountains dun, "Tis blithe to hear the sportsman's gun, 1 [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 Along the silver streams of Tweed, Then dashing from the current high, "T is blithe at eve to tell the tale, [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.] y y |