marks by which songs in the Scottish manner are now distinguished.

Thus it would appear that the intercourse between England and Scotland, or the identical origin of the two nations, or the similarity of literary and musical taste and development at this time, were such, that they possessed many songs in common, as they do now. It is clear, moreover, from these and other circumstances already mentioned, that the influence exercised upon Scottish song and music by James I. was strong and lasting. He is recognised as the father of Scottish melody, and popular tradition ascribes to him the composition of many beautiful and well-known airs. Circumstances at a later period tended to develop the musical taste of the people, and to make it somewhat different from that of England, from which it sprung. Constant intercourse with France was probably not without some effect; and the career of James V., himself a composer and song-writer, as well as that of the beautiful, accomplished, and unfortunate Mary, tended to improve the musical taste of the country. Mary's two secretaries, Chatelar, a Frenchman, and Rizzio, an Italian, were both admitted to her favour and intimacy in consequence of their musical skill; and both, it is to be presumed, encouraged a love of music among the frequenters of the court, and influenced in a greater or less. degree the musical taste of the people. To Chatelar are ascribed many tender melodies now considered Scottish, which are obviously of French parentage; and to Rizzio Scotland is probably indebted for more music than will ever be discovered to have come from Italy. Be this as it may, music flourished in this little-known and but half-civilised portion of the empire when it began to decay elsewhere; and not even the Reformation, which in England had the effect of consigning to oblivion or to popular hatred many ancient songs and tunes,

could damp in Scotland the musical ardour of the people. Many Roman Catholic chants became the property of the secular Muse; and such airs as "John, come kiss me now," "Auld lang syne," ," "John Anderson my Jo," and "We're a' noddin," which belonged to the cathedral service of both countries, were appropriated to profane purposes and indecent parodies, and sung sometimes in ridicule of that Church from which they had been taken, and sometimes to words of the most objectionable character.

Scottish music was, however, but little known to the world until Allan Ramsay, in the year 1724, collected the songs of his country. His "Tea-Table Miscellany," however, gave no account of the sources from which he derived his materials, and fully one-half of the four volumes to which the work extended consisted of English songs, including the whole series of the "Beggar's Opera," then recently published and in the height of its popularity. But Allan Ramsay, though the most valuable of the early labourers in the field, was not the first. Towards the middle of the seventeenth century Scottish music began to be spoken of in England, and from that period to the reign of Queen Ann became so fashionable as to be imitated by English musicians. English song-writers, of the class of D'Urfey and others, also began to imitate the Scottish manner, and produced some very barbarous songs, as distasteful to Scotchmen as they were incomprehensible to Englishmen. But in Scotland itself at this time the current music was purely traditional and popular; and the first music-book printed north of the Tweed, the book of Andro Hart, of which we have already made mention, contained no Scottish melodies whatsoever, but tunes that were notoriously and avowedly English.

Nevertheless, the national music continued to flourish in

Scotland; and if not to decline in England, to be banished almost entirely from the higher circles of the nobility and the Court. Scotland was peculiarly fortunate in this respect. It never became the fashion to deny the existence of her national melodies, whether of her own or of English growth; and zealous collectors appeared from time to time to preserve both her songs and her music. Allan Ramsay, who not only preserved the ancient lyrics of his country, and improved them by many masterly touches of his own, but enriched its literature by many beautiful original compositions, which he adapted to the old tunes, was followed, after a short interval, by David Herd, an investigator of great industry, judgment, and taste. To him Scotland owes the preservation of many admirable old songs and ballads, abounding either with its characteristic tenderness, or with its no less characteristic humour. Johnson's "Musical Museum,"* the first number of which appeared in 1787, was an effort both to preserve and to improve the songs and music of Scotland-an effort in which the publisher and editor was admirably assisted by Robert Burns, a writer then but little known, but whose fame is now as wide as the two hemispheres, and penetrates as far as the influence of the English language and the pastures or farm-steadings of our colonies. Burns wrote some songs for this work, and brought from obscurity, by the easy light of his genius, a still greater number, that in their old shape were either too uncouth or too indecent for introduction into refined and moral company. A greater than Johnson shortly afterwards appeared in the person of the late George Thomson of Edinburgh. Mr. Thomson availed himself of the same renowned and happy pen;

* The imprint of this volume states it to have been sold by "James Johnson, Engraver, Bell's Wynd, Edinburgh;" and that it was sold "by T. Kay and Co., 332 Strand; and by Longman and Brodripp, 26 Cheapside, London." No. 332 Strand is the present office of the Morning Chronicle.

and with this assistance, did more than any previous collector had done to give Scottish music the world-wide celebrity and favour which it now enjoys.

He

Burns created no new taste among his countrymen. but developed, extended, and improved that which he found already existing; and hence his immediate and long-continued popularity. The Muse of Scotland is a pastoral fair one,—a beautiful bare-footed lassie, "with her loose robes" and "her yellow hair" floating in the wind; with blue eyes full of passion, romance, and tenderness; with a quaint, yet pleasing and highly melodious expression on her tongue; with a heart as prone to be fanatical in religion as romantic in affection; and above all, with a luxurious sense of physical enjoyment, and with a keen appreciation and taste for the humorous.

The beauty of Scottish song is its truth and simplicity. Burns, as well as his great forerunners, compeers, and successors, always appealed to the heart. Unlike the song

writers of England, whom, with few exceptions, they immeasurably excel, they never wasted their time in mere conceits and prettinesses. What they felt they said, and what they said they expressed in the pithy language of real emotion, not the less effective because expressed in a provincial dialect. Their tenderness is as manly as their independence; and their wit, if sometimes coarse, is always genial and genuine. Their pictures of rural life are full of charm and of a vivid reality. The landscape, with all its colours and sounds, exists in their lays.

It may be doubted whether the song-writers of any other people ever depicted youthful passion in all its varieties. of joy and sorrow with more heart-felt fervour and irresistible fascination. These bards, many of them nameless, make no pretence to be refined; yet amidst their rudest snatches we often light upon the happiest thoughts, expressed

of no contemptible emendations and new readings of the old ballads, as well as of original snatches of poetry adapted to the old tunes. The cities of Edinburgh and of Glasgow alone have produced within the last dozen years as many good Scottish songs as would fill three or four such volumes as that we now offer to the public, and the greater portion of which have been collected and published under the title of "Whistle Binkie." A few of the compositions of the late Alexander Rodger and Donald Carrick, the most distinguished contributors to that volume, will be found in our pages,-which, by the kind permission of the publisher, might have included many more, had not the limited space at our command imperatively forced us to exclude the multitude of living writers that would have had as much title to appear as any one whom we might have selected. "For," to use the words of Burns,