The Banfters are lyart *, and runkled, and grey;

binders

hoary

At fairs nor at preaching,

Nae wooing, nae fleeching ',

wrinkled

Since our bra foresters are a' wed away.

is begun. The reapers are called bearers, and the operation fbearing. The practice here alluded to, is thus beautifully defcribed by Thomfon, who was born in the near neighbourhood of the field of Flodden.

At once they stoop, and fwell the lufty fheaves;
While through their cheerful band the rural laugh,
The rural scandal, and the rural jest,

Fly harmless, to deceive the tedious time,
And steal unfelt the fultry hours away.

i Banflers, Bandfers, i. e. Binders, men who bind up the fheaves behind the reapers.

k Lyart, a term appropriated to denote a peculiarity which is often feen to affect aged perfons, when fome of the locks become grey fooner than others. Where the mixture of black and white hairs is pretty uniform, the hair is faid to be grey.

1 Fleeching means nearly the fame thing with coaxing; properly, it is a kind of earnestly intreating, with a defire to gain any one over to the purpose wanted, by artfully drawing them to form a good opinion of the fleecher. Fairs and public preachings in the fields, at that time begining to be common in Scotland, were places of public refort, at which young perfons of both fexes had occafion to meet and as these were often at a great distance from home, it gave the young men opportunities of performing obliging offices of gallantry to their mistreffes, which was, no doubt, one cause of their being fo well attended: They were as the balls and affemblies of the country belles and beaux.

V.

O dule for the order!

alas

Sent our lads to the border !

The English for anes, by guile wan the day.

once

The flow'rs of the foreft

Wha aye fhone the foremost,

who always

The prime of the land lie cauld in the clay".

cold

The poet has, with great art and pathos, made allufions in these few lines, to many circumftances, the recollection of which, and the changes he pathetically describes, that had happened by that fatal battle, muit have impreffed the minds of those who lived at that time with the most tender emotions. No wonder that it has been preferved, when fo many others have entirely perished.

The fecond letter is in a file extremely different from the former, which, on account of the strict impartiality that is meant invariably to be purfued in this performance, shall also obtain a place. The letter · is as follows:

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SIR,

"I happened lately to fee your Prospectus of the "Bee. This paper I read with great attention and pleasure, fhewed and recommended it to a numerous "circle of my friends, whom I found willing to pa"tronize the work, upon its anfwering the high expectations which your zeal and industry have excit

m The laft verfe is a natural national apology for the defeat. The expreffion in the first line is common in Scotland Dule (prob dolor! The Scotch were fond of Latin phrases) fignifies grief or forrow, as if he had faid, Alas, for the order!

66

66

"ed. Among others, I fhewed your propofals to an ingenious friend, who feemed much pleafed with "the scheme, and who, at my request, promised his "affiftance moft readily. But I fuggefted to him that you appeared to do no great honour to his favourite "art, Poetry, which is alfo mine; and that he was "called upon to defend it by a fpirited remonftrance, "and with all the enthusiasm of the irritabile genus. "He told me he would think of it; and though he is as great an enemy to the mere rhyming race as you can be, and does not wish to fee them encouraged, 46 a few days after he sent me the inclofed ode, which "I have transcribed. In my opinion it will do no "difcredit to your work, nor to any publication what

66

ever. And I think you, as a profeffed patron of the "mufes, are in juftice and generofity called upon to "let THE MUSE be heard in defending her honour at 66 your bar.

"MECENAS."

The ode alluded to in this epiftle follows. What merit it poffeffes, the reader is left to decide. As to the editor, he would have been well pleafed if the irritated mufe had defended her rights with a ftill greater degree of energy and ardour. A ftrict attention to nature, he thinks he has obferved, has much more power over the human heart, than the most studied ornaments of art, or the niceft allufions to heathen mythology, which, he is afraid, too often leads the imagination aftray in purfuit of ideal phantoms instead of real objects.

The imprecation of the Mufe on a periodical paper, intituled THE BEE, by which a prize of five guineas is offered for the best profe essay, and one of two guineas for the best poetical piece.

ODE-Irritabile Genus.

Nemo me impunè laceffet.

Roufe, Hecate, regard my spell,
That wakes the spectres gaunt of night;
Quick, fummon up the hags of hell,
To blot the fun, to blaft the realms of night.
Rife, pitchy fogs, from Lethe's caverns rife
Let poppies rankeft odours taint the skies.

Where'er the BEE explores the bloom,
Let mildew fhed, from dampy wing,
Corrofive drops and chilly gloom :
Nor there let lark or linnet ever fing,
But hooting owls through night inceffant wail,
And footy bats the dark-brow'd morning hail.

Hafte, with a fifter's powerful prayer,
Implore Latona's bright hair'd fon
To rife, revenge the wrong I bear,
The daring infult to my honour done;
To me, to him, to all our facred choir,
Whose bofoms burn with pure etherial fire.

Ye fouls fublim'd, ye favour'd few,
Indignant fpurn the paltry bribe,

That finks you with the vulgar crew

Of dung-hill breed, the greedy, grovelling tribe,
That ever dronish creep, or lumpish climb,
And ftagger forth on beggar ftilts of rhyme.

Ne'er let a H-me or M-f-n deign

To grace th' untun'd, unhallow'd band;
Ne'er tread the unpropitious plain,
Where now my fcowling foes ufurp command;
Give me to dig in Mammon's dirtieft mine,
Me, earliest honour'd of a race divine.

Lord of the foul expanding lyre,

Shall these presume to fhare thy fmile,
Nor feel the vengeance of thine ire,

To fcourge their impious crime through Albion's isle,
To root their annals from the rolls of fame,
Where fhines pre-eminent the poet's name?

The Home-bred Linnet.

THE home-bred linnet never knew
To courfe the wide campaign;
And knowing not his native right,
He knows not to complain.

Content within his narrow cage,
He ceases not to fing,

But hails the beam of winter's day,
As happy as the spring.

Release him from his blifsful bonds,
And let him wing the skies,
So ftrange is the unlook'd for change.
He's loft where'er he flies.

Accuftom'd not to feek his food
The hill and valley yields;
The hills and vales to him are bare,
And barren are the fields.