J. F. Campbell Collection > Minstrelsy of the Scottish border

INTRODUCTION. Ixxiii
SUPPLEMENTAL STANZAS TO COLLINS'S ODE ON THE
SUPERSTITIONS OF THE HIGHLANDS.
Bv WILLIAM ERSIUNE, Ksq , Advooatk.
The editor embraces this oijportimity of presenting the reader with the
following stanzas, intended to commemorate some striking Scottish super-
stitions, omitted by Colins in his ode upon that subject ; and which, if the
editor can judge with impartiality of the production of a valued friend, will
be found worthy of the sublime original. The reader must observe, that
these verses form a continuation of the address, by Collins, to the author of
Douglas, exhorting him to celebrate the traditions of Scotland. They were
first published in the Edinburgh Mct^azine, for April, 1 788.
Thy muse may tell, how, when at evening's close,
To meet her love beneath the twilight shade.
O'er many a broom-clad In-ae and heathy glade.
In merry mood the village maiden goes ;
There, on a streamlet's margin as she lies,
Chaunting some carol till her swain appears,
With visage deadly pale, in pensive guise,
Beneath a wither'd fir his form he rears * !
Shi-ieking and sad, she bends her irie flighty
When, mid dire heaths, where flits the taper lilue.
The whilst the moon sheds dim a sickly light,
The airy funeral meets her blasted ^^ew !
When, trembling, weak, she gains her cottage low,
Where magpies scatter notes of presage wide.
Some one shall tell, while tears in torrents flow.
That, just when twilight dimm'd the green hill's side.
Far in liis lonely shiel her hapless shepherd died.
Let these sad strains to lighter sounds give place !
Bid thy brisk viol warble measures gay !
For see ! recall'd by thy resistless lay.
Once more the Brownie shows his honest face.
* The wraith, or spectral appearance, of a person shortly to die, is a firm article in the
creed of Scottish superstition. Nor is it unknown in our sister kingdom. See the story of
the beautiful lady Diana Rich. — Aubrey's Miscellanies, p. 89.
/