Then mark, sweet minstrel o' the day! Her deep wild glens; her mountains grey, And eke her ilka sunny brae Wi' flow'rs o'erspread! What time alane thou may'st retire, In Scotia's praise ; And mak thee strike thy native lyre To saftest lays! To wake the pangs Despair maun dree, Whan griefs combine; To start the tear in Pity's ee The task be thine. RICHARD GALL, Edinburgh, Oct. 11, 1799. VOL. XXXIX. ADVERTISEMENT. FANCIFUL as poetical productions generally are, we naturally look for something more than mere imaginary painting, when the subject turns on national manners or events. It may therefore be necessary, thus early to intimate to the critical reader, that if he expects to find the following Poem founded on some historical fact, or traditionary testimony, he will be disappointed. Nor let him attribute this defect to the negligence or stupidity of the author, but to those who have most unaccountably deprived him of these valuable sources of information. Had our early annalists and succeeding historians, instead of devoting their whole attention to intestine feuds, warfare, and hostilities, bestowed the tenth part of their labours on the manners, customs, and rural occupations of our ancestors, an author would have had little to plead in excuse for having reared a poetical fabric without some solid foundation, or for having painted national scenes and events, founded chiefly on conjecture and analogical deduction. Effectually excluded from all information on these interesting subjects by the causes just specified, and unfurnished with any materials for ascertaining the real condition of the |