Or lowlier board of Ashestiel ;' While the gay tapers cheerly shine, Days free from thought, and nights from care, THE SUN UPON THE WEIRDLAW AIR 14 HILL. Rimhin aluin 'stu mo run." The air composed by the Editor of Albyn's Anthology." The words written for Mr. George Thomson's Scottish Melodies, [1822.] -i THE Sun upon the Weirdlaw Hill, In Ettrick's vale, is sinking sweet; The westland wind is hush and still, The lake lies sleeping at my feet. Yet not the landscape to mine eye Bears those bright hues that once it bore; With listless look along the plain, 1 Ashestiel, the Poet's residence at that time. 2 ["Nathaniel Gow told me that he got the air from an old gentleman, a Mr. Dalrymple of Orangefield, (he thinks,) who had it from a friend in the Western Isles, as an old Highland air." GEORGE THOMSON.] The quiet lake, the balmy air, The hill, the stream, the tower, the tree, Are they still such as once they were, Or is the dreary change in me? Alas, the warp'd and broken board, Were barren as this moorland hill. THE MAID OF ISLA. AIR-"The Maid of Isla." WRITTEN FOR MR. GEORGE THOMSON'S SCOTTISH MELODIES. [1822.] O, MAID OF ISLA, from the cliff, That looks on troubled wave and sky, Now beating 'gainst the breeze and surge, O, Isla's maid, yon sea-bird mark, T Her white wing gleams through mist and spray, VOL. V. 31 Against the storm-cloud, lowering dark, As breeze and tide to yonder skiff, Where sea-birds close their wearied wing. For in thy love, or in his grave, THE FORAY.' SET TO MUSIC BY JOHN WHITEFIELD, MUS. DOC. CAM. THE last of our steers on the board has been spread, The eyes, that so lately mix'd glances with ours, [Set to music in Mr. Thomson's Scottish Collection, 1830.] The rain is descending; the wind rises loud; Our steeds are impatient! I hear my blithe Gray! The drawbridge has dropp'd, the bugle has blown ; One pledge is to quaff yet-then mount and begone!To their honour and peace, that shall rest with the slain; To their health and their glee, that see Teviot again! ETHELFRID, or OLFRID, King of Northumberland, having bcsieged Chester in 613, and BROCKMAEL, a British Prince, advancing to relieve it, the religious of the neighbouring Monastery of Bangor marched in procession, to pray for the success of their countrymen. But the British being totally defeated, the heathen victor put the monks to the sword, and destroyed their monastery. The tune to which these verses are adapted, is called the Monks' March, and is supposed to have been played at their ill-omened procession. WHEN the heathen trumpet's clang March'd from Bangor's fair Abbaye; On the long procession goes, O miserere, Domine! |