Directions for Cultivating a Hop-garden. Whom fancy persuadeth, among other crops, To have for his spending sufficient of hops, Must willingly follow, of choices to choose, Such lessons approved, as skilful do use. Ground gravelly, sandy, and mixed with clay, Choose soil for the hop of the rottenest mould, Well dunged and wrought, as a garden-plot should; Not far from the water, but not overflown, The sun in the south, or else southly and west, Meet plot for a hop-yard once found as is told, Make thereof account, as of jewel of gold; Now dig it, and leave it, the sun for to burn, And afterwards fence it, to serve for that turn. The hop for his profit I thus do exalt, It strengtheneth drink, and it favoureth malt; And being well brewed, long kept it will last, And drawing abide-if ye draw not too fast. Housewifely Physic. 'Good huswife provides, ere a sickness do come, Moral Reflections on the Wind. Though winds do rage, as winds were wood,1 1 Mad. SCOTTISH POETS. The difference between the English and Scottish languages had now become decided. In Barbour and Wyntoun, the variation is very slight; but before another century had elapsed, the northern dialect was a separate and independent speech. This distinction had probably existed long before in the spoken language of the people; but it was only developed in poetry in the writings of Henryson, Dunbar, and Lyndsay. The Anglo-Saxon element predominated in the north, and it was proved to be not unfitted for the higher purposes of poetry. Dunbar is a vigorous imaginative poet, greater than any that had appeared since the days of Chaucer, and only wanting a little more chivalrous feeling and a finer tone of humanity to rival the father of English verse. JAMES I. OF SCOTLAND. This chivalrous Scottish prince was born in 1394In order to save him from the unscrupulous hands of his uncle, the Duke of Albany, James was privately despatched to the court of Charles VI. of France, but the vessel in which he embarked was seized off the coast of Norfolk, and the young prince, then in his eleventh year, was forcibly detained by Henry IV. of England. This act of gross injustice completed the calamities of the infirm and imbecile King Robert III. of Scotland, who sank under the blow, and it led to the captivity of James for more than eighteen years. Henry, however, furnished the captive prince with liberal means of instruction. In all the learning and polite accomplishments of the English court he became a proficient, excelling not only in knightly and athletic exercises, but in the science of music and in acquaintance with the classic and romantic poets. Chaucer and Gower he studied closely. Original composition followed; and there are few finer strains than those with which James soothed his hours of solitary restraint within Windsor Tower. His description of the small garden which lay before his chamber windowonce the moat of the Tower-and the first glimpse he there obtained of his future queen, the Lady Joan Beaufort, form a beautiful and touching episode in our literary annals. James obtained his release, married the Lady Joan in February 1424, and in May of the same year was crowned king of Scotland-the most accomplished prince of his age, to rule over a turbulent and distracted country. He set himself vigorously to reduce the power of the profligate nobles, and to insure the faithful administration of justice, resolving, as he said, that the key should keep the castle, and the bush secure the cow. The sentiment was worthy a prince; but James pursued his measures, in some instances, too far, and clouded the aspect of justice with ineffaceable stains of cruelty and vengeance. A conspiracy was formed against him (the chief actor in which was his uncle, Walter Stuart, Earl of Athole), and he was assassinated at Perth, on the 20th of February 1437. The principal poem of James I. is entitled The King's Quhair, meaning the King's Quire, or Book. Only one MS. of the poem (which extends to nearly 1400 lines) is extant, preserved in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and was printed in 1783, edited by William Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee. The subject is the royal poet's love for Lady Joan Beaufort, described in the allegorical style of the age, in the manner of Chaucer, and with much fine description, sentiment, and poetical fancy. It places James high in the rank of romantic poets. Two humorous Scottish poems are also ascribed to him-Christis Kirk on the Grene, and Peblis to the Play, both descriptive of rustic sports and pastimes, and the former ridiculing the Scottish want of skill in archery. They are excellent though coarse, humorous poems. The claim of James to the authorship of either has, however, been disputed, though it seems supported-at least in the case of Christis Kirk on the Grene-by good testimony. The style has certainly a more modern cast than would be looked for, but no claimant more probable than James I. has yet been named; and Sir Walter Scott-as well as Tytler and others—unhesitatingly ascribes Christis Kirk on the Grene to the royal poet. In the following quotation, and subsequent extracts, the spelling is modernised : James I. a Prisoner in Windsor, first sees Lady Joan Bewailing in my chamber, thus alone, Now was there made, fast by the Towris wall, So thick the boughis and the leavis green Growing so fair with branches here and there, And on the smalle greene twistis3 sat, Cast I down mine eyes again, And though I stood abasit tho a lite,5 1 Haste. 4 Went and came. And in my head I drew right hastily, 'Or are ye god Cupidis own princess, 'If ye a goddess be, and that ye like Of her array the form if I shall write, About her neck, white as the fire amail,11 In her was youth, beauty, with humble aport, And when she walked had a little thraw 11 Enamel. 15 Before. 12 Gold-work. 16 Slightly. 13 Flame. 17 Knowledge. 14 Match. Of the lighter poems of King James, we a specimen. The following are the stanzas of Christ's Kirk of the Green: Was never in Scotland heard nor seen As was of wooers, as I ween, At Christ's Kirk of the Green that day. To dance thir damsellis them dight, Their gloves were of the raffel right,* Weel prest with many plaits. At Christ's Kirk of the Green that day. Of all thir maidens mild as mead, Was nane so jimp as Gillie, As ony rose her rood was red, Alane At Christ's Kirk of the Green that day. BLIND HARRY. subjoin opening his strong arm and terrible sword, and delighting in the sufferings of his enemies. In the following passage, we have this relentless spirit blazing forth: Storming of Dunnottar Castle. Wallace on fire gart set all hastily, Then Wallace leuch, said: 'I forgive you all ; Some of the incidents in Harry's narrative are so palpably absurd (such as the siege of York, the visit of the queen of England to Wallace's camp with her offer of £3000 in gold, and the combats of Wallace with the French champions and the lion), that they could never have been intended to be received as matters of real history. That Wallace was in France, however, has been confirmed by the discovery of authentic evidence. All the editors conclude that as Harry could not himself, from his blindness, have written out the work, it may have suffered greatly from amanuenses or transcribers; but they have not attended to dates. The only manuscript of the work which exists is dated 1488, and was written by that careful but obscure scribe, John Ramsay, who also transcribed Barbour's Bruce. The blind minstrel was in The Adventures of Sir William Wallace, written existence four years after the date of Ramsay's about 1460, by a wandering poet usually called manuscript, as we know from the treasurer's books BLIND HARRY, enjoyed great popularity up to our of the reign of James IV.; and Ramsay had most own time. Of the author, nothing is known but that likely the benefit of the author's revision—perhaps he was blind from his infancy; that he wrote this took it down from his recitation. Few copies poem, and made a living by reciting it, or parts of would be made of a poem extending to 11,858 it, before company. It is said by himself to be lines, and this fact shews how enthusiastic and founded on a narrative of the life of Wallace, gifted must have been the blind bard who could written in Latin by Arnold Blair, chaplain to the compose and retain in his memory a poem of such Scottish hero, and which, if it ever existed, is now length, and so various in its incidents and delost. The chief materials, however, have evidently scriptions. The poem is in ten-syllable lines, the been the traditionary stories told respecting Wal-epic verse of a later age, and it is not deficient in lace in the minstrel's own time, which was a century and a half subsequent to that of the hero. In this respect, The Wallace resembles The Bruce; but the longer time which had elapsed, the unlettered character of the author, and the comparative humility of the class from whom he would chiefly derive his facts, made it inevitable that the work should be much less of a historical document than that of the learned archdeacon of Aberdeen. | It is, in reality, such an account of Wallace as might be expected of Montrose or Dundee from some unlettered but ingenious poet of the present day, who should consult only Highland tradition for his authority. Harry's Wallace is a merciless champion, for ever hewing down the English with poetical effect or elevated sentiment. A vulgar paraphrase of it into modern Scotch, by William Hamilton of Gilbertfield, has long been a favourite volume amongst the Scottish peasantry: it was the study of this book which had so great an effect in kindling the patriotic ardour and genius of Burns. As a specimen of the original orthography, we subjoin a few of the opening lines of the poem : Our antecessouris, that we suld of reide, Adventure of Wallace while Fishing in Irvine Water. Wallace, near the commencement of his career, is living in hiding with his uncle, Sir Ranald Wallace of Riccarton, near Kilmarnock. To amuse himself, he goes to fish in the river Irvine, when the following adventure takes place : So on a time he desired to play. To lead his net a child furth with him yede ;1 His swerd he left, so did he never again; 8 And cryit: 'Lord, abide; your men are martyred down Then leugh 10 he loud, and said: 'Foul mot you fall! Wha meins it maist the devil of hell him drown! This day for me, in faith, he bees not sought.' His eme's sons he wald not with him tak. This gude knight said: 'Dear cousin, pray I thee, When thou wants gude, come fetch eneuch frae me.' Silver and gold he gart on him give, Wallace inclines, and gudely took his leave. The Ghost of Fawdoun. One of Wallace's followers, Fawdoun, was of broken reputation, and held in suspicion; and while the Scots were pursued by a formidable party of English, led by a blood-hound, Wallace slew Fawdoun, and retreated to Gask Hall with a small party of thirteen men. In the Gask Hall their lodging have they ta'en; Intill his heart he was greatly aghast. Right weel he trowed that was no sprite of man! It was some devil, at sic malice began. He wist no weel there langer for to bide, 6 Up through the hall thus wight Wallace gan glide A great rafter he had intill his hand. 5 Neck. 6 Rest. 8 Tarried. 9 Inquired. Or what it was in likeness of Fawdoun, Some wicked spreit again for him present, I can not speak of sic divinity; To clerks I will let all sic matters be. HOLLAND-HENRYSON. Robin sat on gude green hill, Keepand a flock of fe:1 My dule in dern but gif thou dill," Robin answered: 'By the Rood, Na thing of love I knaw, But keepis my sheep under yon wude, was out of tune: Among the minor yet popular poets about the middle of the fifteenth century, was HOLLAND, author of The Buke of the Howlat (owl), an allegorical poem, containing an exhibition of the feathered tribes under a great variety of civil and ecclesiastical characters, to which is added a digression on the arms and exploits of the Douglases. Nothing is known of the author -not even his Christian name; but Mr David Makyne explained and pleaded, but her advocacy Laing, editor of the Howlat, supposes the poet to have been Sir Richard Holland, a priest, one of the followers of the exiled family of Douglas. The poem appears to have been written about 1453 at Ternoway (now Darnaway), on the banks of the Findhorn, the seat of the Earls of Moray; and it was composed to please the Countess of Moray, dowit, or wedded, to a Douglas. The story is taken from the fable of the jackdaw with borrowed feathers. It is but a very mediocre alliterative production. There are other alliterative Scottish poems of the beginning and middle of the fifteenth century-as the Tale of Rauf Coilzear, alluded to by Dunbar and Gavin Douglas; the Awntyrs of Arthure, Orfeo and Heurodis, &c. A selection of these early pieces, twenty-five in number, all from sources anterior to the close of the sixteenth century, was published by Mr Laing in 1822, with the title of Select Remains of Ancient Popular Poetry of Scotland. Robin on his wayis went, As licht as leaf of tree; And trowed him never to see. Then Makyne cryed on hie: The tables, however, are soon turned. Robin Extract from the Town and Country Mouse. Frae foot to foot he cast her to and frae, But far surpassing these early and obscure worshippers of the native Muse, was Master ROBERT HENRYSON, a moral poet, in character not unlike the English poet Daniel-gentle, meditative, and observant. Of Henryson there are no personal memorials, except that he was chief schoolmaster at Dunfermline-perhaps, as Lord Hailes suggests, preceptor in the Benedictine convent there-and that he was admitted a member of the university of Glasgow in 1462, being described as the 'Venerable Master Robert Henrysone, licentiate in arts, and bachelor in decrees.' Mr Laing, who has edited the works of Henryson (Edinburgh, 1865), places the time of his decease towards the close of the century, when he was probably about seventy years of age. The principal works of Henryson are: Moral Fables of Esop, thirteen in number, with two prologues; Robene and Makyne, a pastoral; Orpheus and Eurydice, and The Testament of Cresseide, being a sequel to Chaucer's Troilus and Cressida. The last of these poems is the most important, but the pastoral of Robene and Makyne is believed to be the earliest production of the kind in our national poetry. It is a simple love dialogue between a shepherd and shepherdess. The old stock properties of the pastoral-the pipe and crook, the hanging grapes, spreading beech, and celestial purity of the golden age-find no place in the northern pastoral. Henryson's Robin sits on a good green hill keeping his flock, and is most ungallantly (Ang.-Sax. dyrn, secret). insensible to the advances of Makyne: Syne up in haste behind the panneling, 'Thy mangery is minget 5 all with care; 1 Sheep. 2 My grief in secret unless thou share. Chaucer has derne love |