Sir Walter Scott, in early life, by the first stanza,* the world is probably indebted for Kenilworth. Mr. Chambers says that of this ballad, an imperfect, altered, and corrected copy was found among his manuscripts after his death; and his widow, being applied to, confirmed the external evidence in his favour, by an express declaration that her husband had said the song was his own, and that he had explained to her the Scottish words. * And are ye sure the news is true? And are ye sure he's weel? Is this a time to think o' wark? Gie me my cloak,-I'll to the quay, And see him come ashore. For there's nae luck about the house, There's nae luck ava'; There's little pleasure in the house, When our gudeman's awa'. And gie me down my biggonet, My bishop-satin gown, And rin and tell the bailie's wife That Colin's come to town. My Sunday shoon they maun gae on, My hose o' pearlin blue; It's a' to please my ain gudeman, For he's baith leal and true. For there's nae luck about the house, There's nae luck ava'; There's little pleasure in the house, "The dews of summer night did fall, And many an oak that grew thereby.” Rise up and mak' a clean fireside, Put on the muckle pot; Gi'e little Kate her cotton gown, And Jock his Sunday coat. And mak' their shoon as black as slaes, It's a' to please my ain gudeman— For there's nae luck about the house, There's little pleasure in the house, When our gudeman's awa'. There's twa fat hens upon the bouk, They've fed this month and mair; Mak' haste and thraw their necks about That Colin weel may fare. And spread the table neat and clean, When he was far awa'! For there's nae luck about the house, There's little pleasure in the house, Sae true his heart, sae smooth his speech, His very foot has music in't, And will I hear him speak? I'm downright dizzy wi' the thought,- For there's nae luck about the house, There's little pleasure in the house, The cauld blasts o' the winter's wind, But what puts parting i' my heid? The present moment is our own, For there's nae luck about the house, There's nae luck ava'; There's little pleasure in the house, Since Colin's weel, I'm weel content, Could I but live to mak' him blest, I'm downright dizzy wi' the thought,- For there's nae luck about the house, There's little pleasure in the house, When our gudeman's awa'. Mr. Chambers may well call this call this song "the Many fairest flower in Mickle's poetical chaplet." a laureled bard might have proudly owned such a ballad. P.S. I was reading this song to a friend, as well as a tongue not Scottish would let me, while an intelligent young person, below the rank that is called a lady, sate at work in the room. She smiled as I concluded, and said, half to herself, "Singing that song got my sister a husband !". "Is she so fine a singer ?" inquired my friend. 66 No, Ma'am, not a fine singer at all; only somehow everybody likes to hear her, because she seems to feel the words she sings, and so makes other people feel them. But it was her choosing that song that won William's love. He said that a woman who put so much heart into the description of a wife's joy at getting her husband home again, would be sure to make a good wife herself. And so she does. There never was a happier couple. It has been a lucky song for them, I am sure.' Now it seems to me that this true story is worth all the criticisms in the world, both on this particular ballad, and on the manner of singing ballads in general. Let the poet and his songstress only put heart into them, and the lady, at least, sees her reward. VOL. II. I VII. AUTHORS ASSOCIATED WITH PLACES. RESIDENCE AT LYME-STORY OF A LOTTERY-TICKET. JOHN KENYON. In one of Mr. Kenyon's charming volumes, there is a slight and graceful poem, addressed to Mary Anning, of Lyme Regis, the first discoverer of the Saurian remains for which that picturesque coast is now so famous, which has for me an interest quite distinct from literature or geology. In that old historical town, so deeply interwoven with the tragedy of Monmouth and the triumph of William III., that old town so finely placed on the very line where Dorsetshire and Devonshire meet, I spent the eventful year when the careless happiness of childhood vanished, and the troubles of the world first dimly dawned upon my heart-felt in its effects rather than known-felt in its chilling gloom, as we feel the shadow of a cloud that passes over the sun on an April day. My dear mother, the only surviving child of a richly beneficed clergyman, had been for her station and for those times what might be called an heiress, and when she married my father, brought him, besides certain property in house and land, a por |