"Now haud your tongue, baith wife and carle, And listen, great and sma', And I will sing of Glenallan's Earl, That fought at the red Harlaw"-- one cannot but regret that he had not written more of the same. Campbell, a poet and a Scotsman, has not attempted it. In short, we do not find poetry in the Scottish dialect at all _kept up_ in Scotland. It is every year becoming more a matter of research and reminiscence. Nothing new is added to the old stock, and indeed it is surprising to see the ignorance and want of interest displayed by many young persons in this department of literature. How few read the works of Allan Ramsay, once so popular, and still so full of pastoral imagery! There are occasionally new editions of the _Gentle Shepherd_, but I suspect for a limited class of readers. I am assured the boys of the High School, Academy, etc., do not care even for Burns. As poetry in the Scottish dialect is thus slipping away from the public Scottish mind, I thought it very suitable to a work of this character to supply a list of modern _Scottish dialect writers_. This I am able to provide by the kindness of our distinguished antiquary, Mr. David Laing--the fulness and correctness of whose acquirements are only equalled by his readiness and courtesy in communicating his information to others:-- SCOTTISH POETS OF THE LAST CENTURY. ALLAN RAMSAY. B. 1686. D. 1757. His _Gentle Shepherd_, completed in 1725, and his _Collected Poems_ in 1721-1728. It cannot be said there was any want of successors, however obscure, following in the same track. Those chiefly deserving of notice were-- ALEXANDER Ross of Lochlee. B. 1700. D. 1783. _The Fortunate Shepherdess_. ROBERT FERGUSSON. B. 1750. D. 1774. _Leith Races, Caller Oysters_, etc. REV. JOHN SKINNER. B. 1721. D. 1807. _Tullochgorum_. ROBERT BURNS. B. 1759. D. 1796. ALEXANDER, FOURTH DUKE OF GORDON. B. 1743. D. 1827. _Cauld Kail in Aberdeen_. ALEXANDER WILSON of Paisley, who latterly distinguished himself as an American ornithologist. B. 1766. D. 1813. _Watty and Meg_. HECTOR MACNEILL. B. 1746. D. 1818. _Will and Jean_. ROBERT TANNAHILL. B. 1774. D. 1810. _Songs_. JAMES HOGG. B. 1772. D. 1835. ALLAN CUNNINGHAM. B. 1784. D. 1842. To this list we must add the names of Lady Nairne and Lady Anne Lindsay. To the former we are indebted for "The Land o' the Leal," "The Laird o' Cockpen," and "The Auld Hoose;" to the latter for "Auld Robin Gray:" and our wonder is, how those who could write so charmingly should have written so little.