Perthshire in bygone days

NIEL GOW AND EOBEET BUENS. 487
man's air, his verses and it being of corresponding
excellence.
ADDEESS TO THE WOODLAKK.
Tune — " Locherroch-side.
stay, sweet warbling woodlark, stay !
Nor quit for me the trembling spray ;
A hapless lover courts thy lay,
Thy soothing, fond complaining.
Again, again that tender part,
That I may catch thy melting art ;
For surely that would touch her heart
Wha kills me wi' disdaining.
Say, was thy little mate unkind,
And heard thee as the careless wind ?
Oh ! nought but love and sorrow joined
Sic notes o' woe could wauken.
Thou tells o' never-ending care ;
O' speechless grief and dark despair,
For pity's sake, sweet bird, nae raair,
Or my poor heart is broken.
At most of the country mansions Niel Gow was an occa-
sional guest, but at no one of them was his presence more
cherished than at Abercairney. The old laird was in his
glory when he got Niel and Mr. Graham of Orchill
started to the fiddle ; and when the evening dance came on,
it never gained proper spirit until, when changing from a
strathspey to a reel, Niel gave a shout that made them
bound like grasshoppers. In these old times Caroline
Oliphant danced like Fanny Elssler, and Pensey Macdonald
with the grace of Taglioni. On one occasion Niel paid a
professional visit to Abercairney, where he remained some
days. The house was full of company, dancing at night
and occasionally listening to Niel's fascinating strains
during the day. One very wet morning, in passing through
the servants' apartments in search of an umbrella, he
observed in a corner the bones of one of these useful tra-
velling companions without a shred of cloth on it. His
jocular mind suggested to him what he concluded would
dispel a little of the depression incident to such a morning ;
so, pushing up the skeleton to its full pitch, he sallied out
amidst the pouring rain, and, purposely passing the windows
of the breakfast-room, where he knew the company were
all assembled, he held the skeleton umbrella stiffly to the
same angle as he would have done had it been covered,