remarks on the songs. A copy of this kind I will leave with you, to publish at some after-period, by way of making the Museum a book famous to the end of time, and you renowned for ever." Johnson immediately sent him an interleaved copy; and upon mentioning the improvement that had been suggested by the bard to Dr Blacklock, Mr Tytler, and some other of his friends in Edinburgh, they unanimously approved of the measure, and agreed to communicate to Burns all the anecdotes and remarks they could collect respecting the national songs of Scotland. Some progress was accordingly made in this new department; but in consequence of the death of Mr Tytler, Dr Blacklock, Mr Masterton, Mr Clarke, Mr Burns, and, last of all, of the publisher himself, it was never brought to a conclusion. What had been done, however, was given to the public in the volume entitled "Reliques of Robert Burns," edited by the late Mr Cromek. The Museum is unquestionably by far the most extensive and valuable collection of Scottish songs that has ever been published. Each of the six volumes contains a hundred melodies, with a still greater number of songs, to which they are adapted. Besides those beautiful songs which appear in other collections, the Museum presents us with many ancient Scottish ballads, and a very great variety of those old, curious, and exceedingly humorous songs, with their original melodies, the favourite lyrics of our early ancestors, to be found in no other musical publication whatever. It has for a considerable time been matter of regret, that this work has long been out of print, and few, if any copies have been seen in the market for some years past. I have, however, the pleasure of announcing to your musical friends, that a new and improved edition of the Museum is now in a state of forwardness. The original plates, including the manuscripts of the poetry and music of that work, have been purchased (as you perhaps may have heard) by Mr Blackwood, from the heirs of Mr Johnson. That department, which was left unfinished, has been committed to the charge of a gentleman who was a mutual friend of the late publisher and the bard, and who had, during their lives, collected a variety of "This song is improperly titled in Johnson's Museum. It should have been called, Ah, Chloris, could I now but sit,' to the tune of Guilderoy. The tender and pathetic stanzas in the Museum were composed by the Right Honourable Duncan Forbes, Lord President of the Court of Session in Scotland, about the year 1710. They were addressed to Miss Mary Rose, the elegant and accomplished daughter of Hugh Rose, Esq. of Kilravock. To this lady, with whom he had been acquainted from her infancy, he was afterwards united in marriage. bore him one son, who was his heir and successor; but Mrs Forbes did not long survive this event. His Lordship, however, remained a widower from that time till his She decease, which happened on the 10th of December 1747, in the sixty-third year of his age. His remains were interred in the Greyfriars' church-yard. "It is not a little curious, that Ritson places the song, Ah, Chloris,' at the head of his collection of English songs, and observes, that he never heard of its having been set to music. Perhaps it did not at that time occur to him, that a Scotchman might be able to write very good English, or that every person of musical taste, from Berwick to Johnny Groat's House, could have set him right with regard to the music, had he thought proper to make any inquiry about it during his residence in Scotland. "With respect to the hero of the ballad properly called Guilderoy,' we learn the other historians. Guilderoy was a notorious following particulars from Spalding and freebooter in the Highlands of Perthshire, who, with his gang, for a considerable time infested the country, committing the most barbarous outrages on the inhabitants. Seven of these ruffians, however, were at length apprehended, through the vigilance and activity of the Stewarts of Athole, and conducted to Edinburgh, where they were tried, condemned, and executed, in Febru ary 1638. Guilderoy, seeing his accomplices taken and hanged, went up, and in revenge burned several houses belonging to the Stewarts in Athole. This new atrocity was the prelude to his ruin. A proclamation was issued, offering £1000 for his apprehension. The inhabitants rose en masse, and pursued him from place to place, till at length he, with five more of his associates, was overtaken and secured. They were next carried to Edinburgh, where, after trial and conviction, they expiated their offences on the gallows in the month of July 1638. "If we may place any reliance on traditional report, it would seem that Guilderoy belonged to the proscribed Clan Gregor,' and that the ballad was composed, not long after his death, by a young woman of no mean talent, who unfortunately became attached to this daring robber, and had cohabited with him for some time before his execution. That the ballad was well known in England in 1650, is evident from a black letter copy of it, printed at least as early as that date. There is another copy of it, with some slight variations, in Playford's ⚫ Wit and Mirth,' first edition of vol. iii. printed in 1702. Both these copies, however, though possessing several stanzas of real poetical merit, contained many indeli. cate luxuriances, that required the aid of the pruning-hook. This was performed by a lady in every respect qualified for such an undertaking, namely, Miss Halket of Pitferran, afterwards married to Sir Henry Wardlaw of Pitreavie in Fifeshire, the wellknown authoress of Hardiknute. In Lady Wardlaw's amended copy, which did not appear till after her death, some of the old stanzas are retained, others retouched or expunged, and several from her own pen are added. The ballad, in its present shape, is now excellent and unexceptionable. It is rather long for insertion here, but it may be seen in the collections of Herd, Ritson, Gilchrist, and many others." "SONG 37. Mary's Dream. "This beautiful song, as well as the first set of the tune, are the composition of Mr John Lowe, who was born at Kenmore in Galloway, in the year 1750. His father was gardener to the Honourable Mr Gordon of Kenmore, son of that unfortunate nobleman who paid the forfeit of his life and titles for his adherence to the House of Stuart in 1715. Lowe was the eldest son of a numerous family, and received a pretty liberal education at the parish school of Kells. At the age of fourteen, he was bound apprentice to a respectable weaver of the name of Heron, father of the late Robert Heron, author of the History of Scotland in six volumes, and other works. This profession, though dictated by the necessity of a parent, was neither congenial to the feelings nor genius of young Lowe. By his own industry, however, he was afterwards enabled to place himself under the tuition of Mr Mackay, then schoolmaster of Carsphairn, an eminent master of the languages. Lowe at this time employed his evenings in teaching church-music, as he possessed a very just ear, sung well, and played with considerable skill upon the violin. These qualities, added to a happy temper and a fine flow of animal spirits, soon gained him many friends, through whose assistance our poet was, in 1771, enabled to enter himself a student of divinity in the university of Edinburgh. On his first return from college, he became "After finishing his studies at the Divinity Hall, and seeing no prospect of obtaining a living in his native country, Mr Lowe, in 1773, embarked for America. For some time he acted as tutor to the family of a brother of the great Washington; a situation which supplied some hopes of advancement. He next opened an academy for the education of young gentlemen in Fre dericksburgh, Virginia, which was given up upon his taking orders in the church of England. After this event he married a Virginian lady, who unfortunately proved his ruin. She was not only regardless of his happiness, but even unfaithful to his bed. Overwhelmed with shame, disappointment, and sorrow, the vigour of his constitution was broken, and he fell into an untimely grave in 1798, in the forty-eighth year of his age. His remains were interred under the shade of two palm trees near Fredericksburgh, without even a stone to write, Mary, weep no more for me.' 6 "This truly elegant and popular ballad, however, was originally composed by Lowe in the Scottish dialect, before he gave it the As the older ballad polished English form. may be interesting, even in its rude form, to some readers, it is here subjoined. "The lovely moon had climb'd the hill Where eagles big aboon the Dee, A voice drapt saftly on her ear- 2 "She lifted up her waukening een, 1817. On the Use of the Common Thermometer as a Hygrometer. MR EDITOR, I AM happy to observe, that you intend to devote a certain portion of your interesting miscellany to the subject of Meteorology, and I have no doubt you can number, among your readers, a great many other meteorologists besides your Reporters. It is a subject to which, from long habit, I feel very partial, and, with your leave, I will submit a few remarks on the use of the hygrometer, for the consideration of such as may be engaged in similar pursuits. It is not my intention to enter into any long or minute detail of the numerous instruments that have been proposed for ascertaining the state of the atmosphere with regard to moisture, or to attempt deciding on the comparative merits of Saussure's hair, and De Luc's whalebone. I believe it may be safely affirmed, that a correct, at least a permanently correct, hygrometer, never can be constructed on the principle of any such contrivance, and for this obvious reason: However accurately the instrument may be originally made, it no sooner begins to operate than it begins to change, the alternate expansions and contractions of the substance producing necessarily, however slowly, some derangement in its natural texture. The contrivance itself may be extremely ingenious, but, from VOL. I. 381 the very nature of the materials em ployed, such hygrometers must be imperfect, in as much as they are subject to changes, the extent of which it is impossible exactly to appreciate. Now, is it not very strange, that after all the complaints that we have heard among meteorologists and philosophers in general, about the want of a hygrometer on accurate principles, they should hesitate a single moment about adopting one as simple and accurate as it is elegant and philosophical? I allude to the differential thermometer of Professor Leslie, which the ingenious inventor has applied, among many other useful purposes, to that of measuring the relative dryness of the atmosphere, and which does so upon principles as fixed and determinate as those of the common thermometer. For the sake of such of your readers as may not be conversant with the subject, I shall give a short description of it nearly in the Professor's own words: "It consists of a thermometer tube, curved like the letter U, with a hollow ball at each extremity containing air, and holding an intermediate portion of sulphuric acid, tinged with carmine. When these balls are of the same temperature, the liquor will remain stationary; but if one of the balls be warmer than the other, the liquor, urged by the increased elasticity of the air, will descend proportionally on that side. To measure the difference of heat between the two balls, the whole interval between freezing and boiling water is divided into a thousand equal parts. If one of the balls be covered with cambric or silk, and wetted with pure water, the instrument forms a complete hygrometer; for it will mark, by the descent of the column in the opposite stem, the constant diminution of temperature which is caused by evaporation from that humid surface, and it must consequently express the relative dryness of the ambient air." It is hardly necessary to observe, that hygrometers constructed on this principle must always indicate the same dryness, in the same circumstances, and may therefore be as readily compared with one another as thermometers themselves. But my object is not so much to discuss the merits of the instru ment itself, as to shew that the common thermometer may be used in its 3 C stead, and that though it may not possess the same degree of delicacy, it is sufficiently accurate for all the ordinary purposes of meteorology. Let two spirit of wine thermometers be chosen, as nearly of the same size as possible, and graduated so as exactly to coincide at different temperatures. Let the bulb of one of them be covered with blue or purple silk while the other remains naked, and let them be suspended at about the distance of two inches from each other. Let the covered bulb be then wetted with pure water, and the two thermometers will very soon indicate a difference of temperature, the wetted one, from the cold produced by the evaporation, sinking below the other, more or less, according to the rapidity of the evaporation; that is, according as the air is more or less dry. If the thermometers be graduated according to Fahrenheit's scale, each degree of difference must be multiplied by 5, and the product will express the degrees of the Professor's hygrometer nearly; or if they are graduated according to the centigrade scale, the degrees of difference, multiplied by 10, will give the hygrometric degrees exactly. From numerous comparative observations, I am able to say, that the average dryness of a month, as indicated by the thermometers, will not differ from that indicated by the hygrometer more than two hygrometric degrees, a quantity that may be safely overlooked in a series of observations which do not admit of extreme accuracy. It may perhaps look like presumption; but I cannot help observing, that the thermometers appear to me better calculated to give the mean dryness of the air than the hygrometer itself; as the latter, from its extreme delicacy, is sometimes affected by a sudden gust of wind at the moment of observation, so as to rise two or three degrees. There is, however, one obvious advantage which the thermometers pos sess over the hygrometer, and that is, their shewing not only the difference between the temperatures of the two bulbs, which is all that the hygrometer shews, but also the actual temperature of both the wet and dry surface, a circumstance necessary to be taken into the account, in estimating the absolute quantity of water held in solution by the atmosphere at the moment. hope it will not be supposed that these I remarks are intended to throw any obstacles in the way of a more extended and general use of an instru ment which is likely to be of such essential service to science, and which has already done so much honour to the ingenious inventor. My object is to press upon those who may not have had an opportunity of making any observations with the hygrometer, but who are familiar with the use of the thermometer, not to neglect the means which they possess of collecting facts on a branch of science which is still in its infancy, and which never can make any advancement but by the patient application of the inductive philosophy. I remain, sir, yours respectfully, K -s, 2d July 1817. G. one, Awake, he rubs his eyes, and prints his Tale." Marston's Satyres. It was a beautiful evening in June. The sun had nearly sunk beneath the western horizon, and was shedding a lingering golden ray on the tops of the mountains. The heat of the day, which had been excessive, was now tempered by a gentle breeze, and I had retired" to dose, perchance to dream," in that little rustic arbour, so romantically situated on the side of the rivulet which runs past my cottage. Seated in my oaken chair, I had abandoned my weary mind to the free current of its own reflections. thoughts, good, bad, and indifferent, in such thick progress that one rode on the other, pursued, I cannot say the noiseless tenor of their way; and the imagination, well aware that its jailor, the reason, no longer mounted guard, flew from its imprisonment with the rapidity of lightning, and began to play those fantastic gambols which I am now about to embody in perhaps as fantastic a history. I imagined (whether dreaming or in a waking vision I cannot tell) that, as I listened, other sounds than the murmur of the rivulet arose out of It seemed a some quarter near me. ד 1817.] Fragment of a Literary Romance. quiet, low, but most melodious, symphony of instruments, sounding unlike those that are played on earth; and I could hear something like a female voice. It was sweet, but inarticulate, and appeared at a great distance. After a short time, one of the tulips which grew near my seat became uncommonly agitated, its leaves quivered, its petals expanded, and an amber-coloured smoke, of the most delicious fragrance, diffused itself through the arbour. This odour for a moment overpowered me, and on opening my eyes I saw before me a most beautiful little female. I shook myself-rubbed my eye-lids-and stretched out my legs in my chair, but all to no purpose. The music continued, the fragrance still diffused itself through the bower in which I sat-and the aerial being (for I could believe her none other) still stood before me with a countenance of more than mortal sweetness. "Her face was as the summer-cloud, whereon The dawning sun delights to rest his rays.' 383 Her figure was symmetry itself. The abstract idea of beauty in the brain of Apelles could not have equalled it. Had Phidias beheld it, he would have gazed with astonishment, and, putting on his apron, proceeded to retouch his Medicean wonder. Her hair was of that golden tint which Raphael has given to his Galatea. It was simply shaded on her forehead; behind, part was confined in a net of pearl, but part flowed luxuriantly on her shoulders. These shoulders-her neck-the contour of her arms, were inimitably graceful. Her robes were of such extreme thinness that they seemed woven with the threads of light, and their colours might have been pilfered from the rainbow. She held a silver wand in her hand, and gently raising it, she thus addressed me: "Be not dismayed, O mortal, and listen attentively to the cause of my appearance. It has long been a dispute in your world, whether the air is peopled with invisible beings; and such is that philosophic pride and obstinacy which mark this age, that, along with your other monstrous I cannot refrain from giving the stanzas theories, you have swept away all to which these two lines belong. * * * "Beneath its shading tucker heav'd a breast, Fashion'd to take with ravishment mankind! So on she rode in virgin majesty, The above admirable stanzas are taken from ANSTER FAIR, a poem, which, in point of true poetic merit, in humorous description, and also in the power of beautiful and sometimes pathetic painting, is entitled to the highest praise. It has been other beings but yourselves from the universe. And yet the doctrines of those sciences which you affect to have improved, may have convinced you that there exist many substances which, although endowed with definite shapes, are yet invisible, and which, although invisible, perform most important purposes in the phenomena of nature. So absurd is the argument from non-appearance to nonexistence." So astonished was I at this logical conclusion of my aerial professor, that I again rubbed my eyes, and shook myself in my chair. In doing so, my green velvet night-cap fell off. "Oho," said I, now I have a certain method of assuring myself, whether you, Mrs Spirit, are really none other than an inhabitant of the upper regions, (and I must do myself the justice to say, that if all your sisterhood are as fairly formed, and as gloriously apparelled as yourself, it would be no proper place for bachelors like me) or whether the study of that mighty magician, Ariosto, has so heated my brain that I cannot now take a com noticed in the Edinburgh Review with general approbation, but yet with no great dis cernment of its peculiar beauties. |