He's braird as he's long--an' ill-faur'd is he, A dafter like body I never did see. An' yet for this cretur she says I am deein'; When that I deny--she's fear'd at my leein'. Obliged to pit up wi' the sair defamation, I'm liken to dee wi' shame and vexation. An' oh, she's a haverin' Lucky, etc. An' her clish-ma-clavers gang a' thro' the town, An' the wee lairdie trows I 'll hang or I 'll drown; Wi' his gawkie like face yestreen he did say, "I 'll maybe tak' you, for Bess I 'll no hae, Nor Mollie, nor Effie, nor long-legged Jeanie, Nor Nellie, nor Katie, nor skirlin' wee Beenie." I stoppet my ears, ran off in a fury-- I'm thinkin' to bring them before Judge and Jury. For oh, what a randy old Lucky is she, etc. Frien's, gie yere advice--I 'll follow yere counsel. Maun I speak to the Provost or honest Town Council? Or the writers, or lawyers, or doctors? now say, For the law o' the Lucky I shall and will hae. The hale town at me are jibbin' an' jeerin', For a leddy like me it's really past hearin'; The Lucky now maun hae done wi' her claverin', For I 'll no pit up wi' her an' her haverin'. For oh, she 's a randy, I trow, I trow, For oh, she's a randy, I trow, I trow. "He's a fell clever lad an' a bonnie wee man," Is aye the beginuin' an' end o' her sang. The finest efflorescence of Scotch lyric poetry, which is the richest and finest in the English language, if not in the world, was that of the Jacobite era, and the influence which followed it and inspired the renaissance of Scotch song is the genius of Burns, Hogg, Cunningham, Lady Nairne, and many more of less distinction, who made a galaxy of singers hardly less remarkable in their way, as marking an era in literature, than the dramatists of the Elizabethan age. The genius of folk-song and ballad poetry had always been remarkably developed in Scotland, in comparison, at least, with England, and, in spite of many characteristics among the Lowlanders, worldly thrift, bitter and barren bigotry, and a sort of dourness and hardheadedness, not calculated to encourage sentiment and emotion; and the student of racial distinctions may be inclined to attribute it to the influence of Celtic blood and tradition, creating a vein of sensitiveness, tenderness, and susceptibility to the magic of song and music in the strong and hard fabric of the Saxon character. But from whatever cause the tendency of the native genius was created, its existence was obvious, and from the very earliest time, since song began to be preserved in written words, the quality and quantity of Scotch folk-poetry and folk-music have been remarkable. The native faculty and the inherited tendency were all present when the spark of an inspiration, involving all the elements of patriotism, daring adventure,