Middletown transcript., 1870-04-09
HIGHLAND MARY"


language is Burns Highland Mary. 1t
was inspired by the great Scotch Poets
love for Mary Campbell, Highland lassie
whose beauty of form was only equaled by
the sweetness of her nature and the purity
of her heart. Burns said of her that she
was fair and affectionate and as guileless
as she was beautiful. The first time he
saw her was during one of his walks in
the woods of the castle of Montgomery"
of which he wrote:
Ye banks and braes and streams around
The Castle of Montgomery,
Green be your woods and fair your flowers,
Your waters never drumle
There simmer first unfaulds her robes,
And there the longest tarry;
For there took my last farewell
o. my sweet Highland Mary
Mary Campbell, SO pretty, so pure, so
gentle and so intelligent lassie, could
not but have many admirers among the
gay laddies of the uplands of Scotland, and
Burns found that he had rivals in abun-
dance for her love. But the superior
address of the Ayrshire poet was success
full, and she gave him her whole heart.
She knew of Burns Irregularities of life,
that he had sinned gricvously against her
own sex, but she knew in her own heart
that her love for him was pure, and she
was equally confident that she had inspired
in his heart an affection that was superior
to any sensual passion. Believing this
she plighted her faith to him, determined
to wed and lead him in the path of virtue
as well as animate him with an ambition
to do great things worthy of his genius,
which she was undoubtedly capable of
appreciating. Burns remained in the
Highlands long enough to consummate
his engagement with the dear creature
He left her expecting in few short months
to return and claim her as his bride. Of
tho hours he spent with her he sung:
The golden hours on angel wings,
| Flew o'er me and my dearie;
| For dear to me as light and life
Was my sweet Highland Mary.
Before parting they exchanged VOWS of
eternal devotion of the most tender kind.
They stood with a running stream between
them, and holding in their hands the bibles
which they had exchanged, they lifted
water in their hands and vowed to remain
! faithful and true to each other as long as
the woods grew and the waters ran. They
parted, how, is told in the following words
Of this sweet sad song:
! WI monte vow and locked embrace,
| Our parting was flu tender;
| And pledging aft to meet again,
We tore ourselves asunder.
But meet again they did not. She went
her way to Caval to make preparations for
her wedding, and was seized with burn
ing fever which hastened her to an early
grave:
But oh twas deaths untimely frost
That nipt my flower sac early.
It is said that Burns never heard of her
death until he was on his way to meet her
at the marriage altar. He never forgot
her, never ceased to love and mourn for
her. No one had ever before so filled the
heart of the wayward, passionate poet, and
no one ever afterwards was able to make
him forget his Highland Mary" He
once before took leave of her in poem,
when he expected to go to the Indies, in
this manner:
l have sworn by the Heavens to my Mary,
| nave sworn by the heavens to be true;
And sac may the Heavens forget me,
If forget my VOW.
He was faithful to his vow, and bis po-
EN- of Highland Mary" is one evidence
of it. Perhaps the sweetest poem Burns
ever wrote was composed in the memory
of sweet Mary Campbell. Years after
her death, after Burns had married and
commenced housekeeping, and had chill
dren about him. upon an anniversary Of
Mary Campbel's death, he fell into fi
of melancholy, which remained upon him
all day. Late in the evening he wander
ed out among his cattle and threw him.
self down beside one of his corn ricks, and
with his eyes fixed on "a bright particu-
lar star" composed the poem ITO Mary
! In Heaven"