Down to ilk bonny singing Bess, That dances barefoot on the green. Before arriving, however, at that grand era in the history of Scottish song, the publication of the TeaTable Miscellany, it is necessary to make allusion to one or two facts which fall a little earlier. The chief of these is Semple's existence as a song writer before the time of Ramsay. Semple flourished during the latter twenty years of the seventeenth century; and he is affirmed, by unvarying and probable tradition, to have been the author of "Maggie Lauder," "Fy, let us a' to the bridal," and "She rose and loot me in." What makes this more probable, is, that not only does Semple seem, from his acknowledged poems, to have been able to write these capital lyrics, but it was quite a natural thing, while men of fashion in the sister country were imitating the old manner, as they called it, that a man of fashion in this country should do the same thing. Whether he was the author or not, it is at least certain, that "Fy, let us a' to the bridal" was printed in Watson's Collection of Poems, 1706, ere Ramsay had yet taken up the lyre; and it is thus curious, as the earliest Scottish song of the kind, now popular, which we can find entire in a printed book or manuscript. A doubt has been insinuated by Mr James Hogg, the esteemed author of the Queen's Wake, whether Semple was the author of "Fy, let us a' to the bridal;" and he presents us with an Ettrick tradition, that it was the composition of Sir William Scott of Thirlstain, in Selkirkshire, ancestor of the present Lord Napier.* "The first man," he says, "whom I heard sing this song, accompanied it with an anecdote of the author singing it once in a large private assembly at London. There were three Scotch noblemen present, So Mr Hogg has informed me orally. The extract which follows is from Blackwood's Magazine for June, 1817. who were quite convulsed with laughter; and the rest, perceiving that there was something very droll in it, which they could but very imperfectly comprehend, requested the author to sing it again. This he positively declined. Some persons of very high rank were present, who appearing much disappointed by this refusal, a few noblemen, valuing themselves on the knowledge of Scotsmen's propensities, went up to this northern laird, and offered him a piece of plate of a hundred guineas' value if he would sing the song over again. But he, sensible that the song would not bear the most minute investigation by the company in which he then was, persisted in his refusal, putting them off with an old proverb, which cannot be inserted here." This vague tradition must be allowed to acquire some respectability, when it is known that Sir William Scott was really a vernacular Scottish poet, and one who flourished at the very time when "Fy, let us a' to the bridal" was printed in Watson's Collection. He was one of that illustrious little knot of wits, composed of Archibald Pitcairne, David Gregory, Walter Dennistone, Sir William Bennet, &c. who, living at the commencement of the eighteenth century, might be said to bring with them the dawn of the revival of literature in Scotland. He appears to have been much addicted to the composition of Latin poetry, there being a considerable number of such pieces by him in Ruddiman's publication of Selecta Poemata, 1727. In an elegy written upon him by John Ker, and published in the same volume, he is called deliciæ novem Sororum, Et Caledonia decus Camanæ ; which seems to prove that he was an eminent writer of Scottish song. He died on the 8th of October, 1725. Ruddiman, in the preface to his Poemata, cha e racterises him in a paragraph, which the learned will excuse me for giving in a translated form. "Sir William Scott of Thirlstain, illustrious in his birth, more illustrious by his virtues, an excellent counsellor and philologist, a judge of all polite letters, and a man to be compared with few in regard to integrity of life, and suavity and elegance of manners, deserves to be ranked in the next place to Pitcairn. He composed some very neat and pretty Latin poems, which, as he was a man of the most consummate modesty, he would never show except to a very few friends; nor would he ever, while in life, permit them to see the light by way of publication." Perhaps, however, nothing could give greater countenance to Mr Hogg's tradition, than the republication of a ludicrous macaronic poem which he wrote, and which must be allowed to display something like the same humour with the old song in question. Ad E m E -m, Equitem, M.D. Villadelphinus · Qualis in terris fabulatur Orpheus Dura Clarshoo modulante, saxa, Talis Hiberno similis poetæ Villadelphinos ego, nec secundus, Dum mihi possham sonat, aut canoram Asinus semper comes est, et anser, Per domum dansant tabulæ, cathedræ, Tunc mihi starkam promit anus aillam, Tunc mihi notæ redeunt Camœnæ, Musa Taiguæos mea poetastros, Doubts of the same nature may be insinuated regarding the authorship of "Maggie Lauder." Semple was a gentleman of Renfrewshire; he wrote many poems local to that district; we are acquainted with no poem of his referring to Fife: it is not, therefore, so probable that he wrote this capital song, which is expressly local to Fife, as that it was written by some other person, who lived in the county referred to. Time, as well as place, is against his claim: "Maggie Lauder" did not appear in any collection before that of Herd, late in the eighteenth century. Was it likely that a song possessed of such popular qualifications should have escaped Ramsay, if it had been written before his time? A question therefore arises-Was there any person residing in the eastern district of Fife, between the era of Ramsay's publication and that of Herd, who could be supposed capable of writing such a song? I answer, there was, and for a considerable time both before and after. Sir William Anstruther of Anstruther, chief dignitary in the neighbourhood of "Anster Town," published "Essays, moral and divine, interspersed with poetry," in 1701. Lieutenant William Hamilton, in Watson's Collection, 1706, sings the elegy of "Bonny Heck, a famous Fife greyhound," some verses of which relate to the very spot of country which may be said to form the scenery of " Maggie Lauder:" What great feats have I done mysell, John Ness and Paterson can tell, Whose hearts may bleed. At the King's Muir, and Kelly Law, With pith and speed I bare the bell before them a', I ran alike on a' kind grunds; Where nought could stay them but the guns, Towards the middle of the century, when it is most probable that Maggie Lauder was written," the East Neuk o' Fife," as the district is called, was a perfect nest of poetical wits; the chief of whom was Clerk Dishington, of Crail, This man instituted a club at Anstruther, (the next town to Crail,) the object of which was to promote good-humour, and to give occasion to wit and doubleentendre: it was called "The Beggar's Bennison." Lunardi, the celebrated aeronaut, happening to alight from one of his aerial excursions in the neighbourhood of Anstruther, was introduced into this circle of wits -it was after Dishington's time—and he gives, in the narrative of his Scottish adventures, a most amusing account of the equivoques, "the quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles," of the society. It was altogether quite of a piece, in humour, with the spirit of "Mag |