From budding elm, and branching thorn, Each little native sung, But wilder thrilling melody, Down glen and greenwood rung; We kiss'd, shook hands, and parted, I did not come that way again, I never dream'd a maiden Could my wavering fancy win, Till first I met this fair one, Then love he enter'd in, And wreck'd my former peace of mind: I sought her for my bride, Now happiness shall crown our days, Down by the Shannon side. Altered from a well known old free Ballad of Irish extraction, bearing the same title with the foregoing, while the third and fifth stanzas are original. LIGHT OF THE MOON.-LATE WOOER. 165 ALONE BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON. WHEN fairies dance light on the grass, Wha revel a' night in a roun'; Though sweet be the jessamine grove, Where the nightingale perch'd on the thorn, Let us meet by the light of the moon. Yes! Rosa, will hie to her love, Through the glen by the burnie, as soon As evening has silver'd the grove, Alone by the light of the moon. Altered from the olden copy, while the last stanza is original. THE LATE WOOER. THE auld man he came over the lea, Ha, ha, ha, I'll no hae him, Out over the lea, He came to court me, With his auld gray beard newly shaven. My mither bade me marry the Laird, Ha, ha, ha, I'll no hae him; Sin' his wealth bears the bell, Ye may wed him yoursel', With his auld gray beard newly shaven. Wad mither and friends but let me alane, Nor come o'er here again, With his auld gray beard newly shaven. First stanza old, rest original. THERE WAS ANE MAY. THERE was ane May, and she lo'ed nae men, When bonny young Johnny came o'er the sea, He had a wee titty that lo'ed na me, Because I was twice as bonny as she; She rais'd such a pother 'twixt him and his mother, That were na' my heart light, I wad die. 167 THERE WAS ANE MAY. The day it was set, and the bridal to be, The wife took a dwaum, and lay down to die: Till he vowed he never wad see me again. His kin was for ane of a higher degree, They said, I had neither cow nor cawf, His titty she was baith wylie and slee, His bonnet stood aye fou round on his brow, And now he gangs dandering about the dykes, Were I young for thee, as I hae been, We shou'd hae been galloping down on yon green, And wow gin I were but young for thee. "There is no single word in modern English," says Lord Hales, in notes to his Selections from the Bannatyne MSS. "which corresponds with dow: that which approaches the nearest to it, is list, from which the adjective listless. The force of the word dow, is well expressed in the penultimate stanza of the foregoing Ballad. The lines alluded to, are in the description of one crossed in love, by an envious sister's machination, and a peevish mother's frowardness:" And now he gangs dandering about the dykes, "The whole," continues his Lordship, "is executed with equal truth and strength of colouring." This Ballad is the composition of Lady Grissel Baillie, daughter of Patrick, the first Earl of Marchmont, and wife of George Baillie of Jarviswood, whose widow she died in 1746. PRESTWICK DRUM. Air-AITKEN DRUM. AT gloamin' gray, the close o' day, Nae bluidy battle it betides, Nor sack, nor siege, nor ought besides, |