Perthshire in bygone days

522 PEBTHSHIBE IN BYGONE DAYS.
This, the first of the Gowrie songs, was written and pub-
lished by William Eeid, a prosperous and talented bookseller
of Glasgow. In those days the booksellers of the "Western
Capital had their aristocracy as well as those of London
and Edinburgh. John Murray, of Albemarle, and William
Blackwood, of Edinburgh, were represented by Dunlop and
Wilson, and Brash and Eeid. These were succeeded by
William Turnbull, andTurnbull by Bobertson and Atkinson.
The latter firm kept up the literary character of the succes-
sion well, the second being a poet of no mean standing,
and the first the editor and publisher of " Whistlebinkie,"
" The Laird of Logan," &c. &c, and the quiet rallying-
point or pole-star to the wags of the west.
Beid's back-shop was frequented successively by Bobert
Burns, John Gait, and Alexander Bodger; as John Murray's
was by Byron, Moore, and Hobhouse; and Blackwood's by
Wilson, Hogg, and Moir; and occasionally a red-robed
youth, whose father was minister of the College Church,
might be seen, with his countenace sharp-set, slipping into
this bibliopolic sanctuary. Here the author of " Valerius "
and " Beter's Letters" imbibed much of that love of litera-
ture which, joined to a finished education, enabled him to
take his stand as one of the first men of that brilliant age.
Within that very circumscribed sanctum, William Beid
listened to Bobert Burns, while he recited, in melting
cadences, "John Anderson, my jo;" and before the sound
of the poet's voice had died away, and while the inspiration
of awakened feelings was full upon him, the clever, pawkie
bookseller composed four stanzas, which, for fourscore years,
have gone hand in hand with the original. The following
verse by Beid is about the best of the eleven into which the
song has now expanded. The poet's theology is the theology
of song : —
John Anderson, my jo, John,
When Nature first began
To try her canny hand, John,
Her masterpiece was man ;
And you among them a', John,
Sae trig frae tap to toe,
She proved to be nae journey-wark,
John Anderson, my jo.
In this classical back-room hung a coloured engraving,
about twenty-two inches by fifteen, which Mr. Beid set
great store by, and was proud and always ready to show to