The Press. — London, England, 1858-07-24 00:00:00

canoell in Dumfrihire, and celrate for her b; w as beloved by two ess gentlemen in the eb neigh d bourhood. eau T ty h e name of the favoured suitor was Adam Fleming of Kirk patrick ; that of tbe other has escaped tradition ; although i t has been alleg The ed that ho was a Bell of Blacket-houtte. addreases of the latter were, however, favoured by the friends of the lady, and the lovers were therefore obliged to meet in secret, and by night, in the churchyard of Kirk tonaell, a romantic spot, surrounded by the river Kirtle. During one of these private interviews, the jealous and d es pised lover suddenly appeared on tile opposite bank of the stream, and levelled his carbine at the breast of his rival. Helen threw herself before her lover, received in her bosom the bullet, and died in his arms. A desperate and m ortal combat ensued between Fleming and the Imo deur, in which the latter was cut to pieces. The ballad is as follows:- 1 wish I were where Helen lies ! Night and day on we she cries ; ih 0 that I were where Helen lies, 111"-- On fair Kirkeonnell lee ! Curst be the heart that thought the thought, And carat the hand that fired the shot, When in my arms burd Helen dropt, And died to sunour me ! 0 think 3e na my heart was sair, When my love dropt down and spoke nae main ! There slid she swoon wi' meikle care, On fair Kirkconnell lee. As I went down the water side, None but my foe to be my guide, None but my too to be my guide, On fair Kirkconnell I lighted down, my sword did draw, I hacked him in pieces ma', 1 backed him in pieces ants', For her sake that died for me. 0 Helen fair, beyond compare! I'll weave a garland of thy hair Shall bind my heart for evermalr, Until the day l dee! 0 that I were where Helen lies! Night and day on me she cries ; Out of my bed she bids me rise, Says " Haste, and come to me !" 0 Helen fair ! 0 Helen chaste : Were I with thee I would be blest, Where thou lies low and takes thy rest, On fair Kirkconnell lee. I wish my grave were growing green; A winding•sheet drawn o'er my e'etta•ia ; And I in Helen's arms lying On fair Kirkconnell lee. ',.•.).„ I wish I wero where Helen lies.!) . lo 23 L ,01 1 Night and day on me she cries, . 0 13/11w. And I eta weary of the skies, 9i1.1 For her sake that died for me ! . • The egotism of grief is well rendered i n these wailing strains. The iteration of the verse, hacked bun in pieces sum, trenches on the ridiculous, and has a spice of gas conade. The labour of collating . them s, and re vising the text of them, is y performed by the accomplished editor. In the beautiful poem of " \Vali, waly up the bank s " there oc curs the following stanza : 7,u s, .I.uin :own not 'Tis not the frost that freezes fell, Nor blearing anaw's inclemencie; .2A lrft bITA 'Tis not sic could that mAkes me cry, ' , tow But my love's heart grown could to me. When we cam' in by Glasgow tours, ")''' We were a comely sight to see; 411Anu Jeott My love was clad i' the black velvet; ItnitirOefilli And I mys 11 in cramoisie. Professor Aytoun then prints a copy (from Mr. Kinloch's manuscript collection) of a fine ballad, called " The Marchioness of :Dougla47! which thus commences : ,e 1 A bbSitopllty) lihiArrlll 'VI 1)9191 1 was a lady of high renown, As lived in the north eountrie; I was a lady of high renown, When Earl Douglas loved me. When we cam thro' Glasgow toun, We were a comely sight to see; My guile lord in velvet green, And I mysel in cramoisle. When we cam to linuglas toun, We were a fine sight to behold My glide lord in crarnoisie And I inyael in shining ;old. t: Professor Aytoun says, in a preliminary note : I may also remark tams. uly friend, Mr. Robert Chambers' ha,' the advantage which I have enjoyed, of consulting Mr Kinloch's MSS. ; and tint he has inserted in his collec tion a collated ballad, in no less than four parts, bearing the same title as that which I have prefixed. his version, however, has been framed upon quite a different principle from mine. He evidently considers " Waly, waly," to be an integral portion of tbis ballad, and he has avowedly at tempted to combine all existing versions. lam very far indeed from doubting his success in the production of an excellent poem ; fur it would ill become a younger editor to criticize the work of an experienced brother, whose knowledge of tradition is indisputable, and whose fine tat rits and great industry are universally recognized. Rut eilf 1 b 'VVE PREEtI; JULY 24,' 1858. I to rescue my old favourite of " Waly, witty," from deseetation; for it really would be desecrated, and a sad slur would be thrown upon the integrity of ancient Scottish song, if it could be proved that a duty which has been long esteemed as a gem of our minstrelsy, was a mere adapts. thin of certain verses excised from a ballad, the true subject of which was not ascertained until thirty years ago. Opinions will differ, perhaps, as to this restora tion of "The Marchioness of Douglas," and we should like an explanation of the change of dresses harped on in the second and third stanzas. These stanzas seem to us like different readings, but we have no doubt that " Waly, Waly," was the anterior poem. We were rather surprised to find "Annie Laurie" printed amongst these ballads. Is it not a song ? But we are glad to have the following note on it : This air is so very popular, that I am tempted to give the orig inal words, the more so as they are not contained in our best musical repertory, Johnson s Museum. They were composed by Douglas of Fingland, in honour of Miss Laurie of Maxwelton. sometime previous to the Revolntion of 1.688 ; bat in this instance the course of love did not run smooth, for the lady married Fergusson of Craigdarroch. The modern version is somewhat expanded, but it has been very skilfully constructed, as, with greater polish of diction, it retains the simplicity of the original. I hirer eitrated the following verses from Mr. Sharpe's Rallad-lick*:•'' The air has had a marvellous renaissance of late years, and its extreme popularity with our brave soldiers in the Crimea was an interesting circum stance. One of the finest poems in those volumes is cited in the preliminary introduction. It is front the pen of an old Scottish poet, lienryson, whose " Fables " are soon to be published by Mr. David Laing : THE ABBAY WALK. Alone as I went up and down In ane abbey was fair to see, Thinking what consolatioun Was best in all adversitie ; ri , On case I cast aside mine e'e, rf „, And saw this written on a wall— In what estate, man, that thou be, "tin Obey, and thank thy God for all. ' to Thy kingdom and thy great empire, !t` l '' Thy royalty, nor rich array, • fl Shall not endure at thy desire, it iT But, as the wind, will wend away Thy gold, and all thy goodes gay, When fortune list will Ira thee fall Sin' thou sic samples sees ilk day, II Obey, and thank thy God for all. 'ld Job was most rich, in writ we find - 141 Tobde most full of charitee ; • ' Job waxed poor, and Tobee blind t•(/. Baith tempted with adveraitie. Inc p 4 Sin' blindness was intirmiiie, And povertie was natural, K).l Bight patiently baith he and he /if , Obey'd, and thanked God for all. •hor Though thou he blind or have an halt, ' Or in thy face deformed ill, ) 51 • So it come not through thy default, Ira No man should thee reprief by skill. Blame not thy Lord, so is His will ; r . Spurn not thy foot against the wall ; 1 But with meek heart and prayer still Obey, and thank thy God for all. God of His justice main correct, And of His mercy pity have; He is ane Judge, to mane suspect, To punish sinful man and save. Though thou be. lord attonr the lave, And afterward made bound and thrall, ' "t' A poor beggar with scrip and stave, tdf.:. Obey, and thank thy God for all. olLs This changing and great variance Of earthly states up and down, 1 PI Comes neither through fortune nor chance, ro As some men says without reasonn, bid lint by the great provisioun ' Of God above that rule thee shall ; rite`'' Therefore thou ever make thee bonne 'to obey, and thank thy God f 4. all. We will return to the second of these most interesting volumes on another: asp !TY ipsirf .1 lad ifmt.tiM , I) t lirri •1 41/ kid rt ).• P,4 il 374,:r" The Clergyman's Legal Handbook. By James Murray Dale. London : Seeleys. EXCEPT the subjects which belong to very high mathematics or very deep metaphysics, Law is the only craft or science which has till lately remained unvisited by the popular genius that presides over handbooks and compendiums. That mysterious fortress—with its mouldering but firm walls of mediaeval tradition, and its modern fortifications, in the shape of tortuous acts of Parliament—long withheld its treasures from the unprofessional barbarian, forbidden to approach save through glacis, drawbridge, rampart, and portcullis, to the purlieus of its central citadel. The 703 Englishman's knowledge of his probable legal re dress or security could only be attained through the complex machinery of solicitors, counsel and courts, judgments and appeals, wigs, gowns, and fees; the cabalistic works in which this informa tion was enshrined being to him in general as unintelligible as gramarye to Sir William of Deloraine. That enlightened seneschal, how ever, the Lord of St. Leonardo, has thrown open a pastern door, by which access is given to the inner ballium if not to the keep itself; and others, equally condescending if less authorita tively competent, have followed his example in setting wide other avenues by which a know ledge, at least, may be gained of the rights and I wrongs which law enables us to maintain or avoid, or forces us to repair. Still, however, the well-known maxim must not be forgotten which describes the quality of that person's client who is his own lawyer. No doubt every one is, in some sense, either a fool or a lawyer at forty, just as he is a fool or a physician at that age, but he would be as little safe in tampering with his estate in the one case as with his constitution in the other. The modicum of truth contained in the saying amounts probably to this,—that by a good deal of generally rather unpleasant ex perience, a man, by the time he reaches middle life, becomes aware of what he can consume with impunity and what kind of symptoms demand the assistance of the regular practitioner; whether it is a matter for sal volatile and soda water at one shilling, or for blisters and blood-letting at one guinea. In like manner, any one who owns a bit of land, or fills a public situation, or ac cepts the office of a trustee, or is in the habit of doing little bills, or of flirting with young women of the middle classes, burns his fingers often enough to cause him to give the legal furnace a wide berth for the future. Like Mr. Guppy, he knows at last where to stop, and what he may communicate " without prejudice." Such a man's experience, if methodized and digested, though it might form but a slender stock in trade for learned brethren, would unquestionably be very useful to the community at large, for it would instruct them when learned brethren ought to be applied to, or, still better, how they may avoid having to apply to learned brethren at all. And this amount and kind of assistance is all that handbooks ought to profess to give, certainly all that any one ought to look for in them. Considered as vade mecums through all the intricacies of law, they are highly pernicious ; considered as manuals of useful cautions respect ing the province of law in our affairs, they are highly useful, and deserve encouragement. Mr. Dale's little volume will supply a want which we believe has been very generally felt. Clergymen are, from the nature of their educa tion, perhaps somewhat less likely than other men to gain usettil legal experience, and though they generally become sharp enough on such matters in process of time, it is not without an immense deal of squabbling with all sorts and conditions of men, from the untitled aristocrat who disturbs the congregation by poking the fire in his pew, to the bedridden old pauper who expects the parson to form a perpetual audience for the history of his rheumatiz. This unpleasant road to a knowledge of the laws of one's country may probably be avoided by consulting some such manual as the present, which condenses into a compact and intelligible form the substance of many larger and more elaborate works. It is not intended for the processional student, but we sus pect there is a good deal in it which even he will not find elsewhere so shortly and clearly put. We happen to have had the opportunity of com paring this work with others on one or two points, and are able to testify in its favour as having pre sented the lbllest and most condensed informa tion. We may refer to the section upon the liabilities of incumbents, and to that upon the formalities to be observed in marriage, as in stances of what we mean. Mr. Dale, who holds the appointment of secretary and solicitor to the New Parishes' Association, and of vestry clerk to one of this class of parishes, has been practically conversant with the wants and wishes of those for whom he labours, and they will doubtless ap preciate his services at their just value. Ifs book is methodically distributed, embracing the subjects of the clergy, the churches, the offices of the church, and its officers ; their property a nd privileges, and the offences and penalties affectin g them. There is no index, but the table of con- ,4