I note again, that among our new dialecticians, the local habitat of every dialect is given to the square mile. I could not emulate this nicety if I desired; for I simply wrote my Scots as well as I was able, not caring if it hailed from Lauderdale or Angus, from the Mearns or Galloway; if I had ever heard a good word, I used it without shame; and when Scots was lacking, or the rhyme jibbed, I was glad (like my betters) to fall back on English. For all that, I own to a friendly feeling for the tongue of Fergusson and of Sir Walter, both Edinburgh men; and I confess that Burns has always sounded in my ear like something partly foreign. And indeed I am from the Lothians myself; it is there I heard the language spoken about my childhood; and it is in the drawling Lothian voice that I repeat it to myself. Let the precisians call my speech that of the Lothians. And if it be not pure, alas! what matters it? The day draws near when this illustrious and malleable tongue shall be quite forgotten; and Burn’s Ayrshire, and Dr. Macdonald’s Aberdeen-awa’, and Scott’s brave, metropolitan utterance will be all equally the ghosts of speech. Till then I would love to have my hour as a native Maker, and be read by my own countryfolk in our own dying language: an ambition surely rather of the heart than of the head, so restricted as it is in prospect of endurance, so parochial in bounds of space. CONTENTS BOOK I.—_In English_ PAGE I. ENVOY—Go, little book 1 II. A SONG OF THE ROAD—The gauger walked 2 III. THE CANOE SPEAKS—On the great streams 4 IV. It is the season 7 V. THE HOUSE BEAUTIFUL—A naked house, a naked 9 moor VI. A VISIT FROM THE SEA—Far from the loud sea 12 beaches VII. TO A GARDENER—Friend, in my mountain-side 14 demesne VIII. TO MINNIE—A picture frame for you to fill 16 IX. TO K. DE M.—A lover of the moorland bare 17 X. TO N. V. DE G. S.—The unfathomable sea 19 XI. TO WILL. H. LOW—Youth now flees 21 XII. TO MRS. WILL. H. LOW—Even in the bluest 24 noonday of July XIII. TO H. F. BROWN—I sit and wait 26 XIV. TO ANDREW LANG—Dear Andrew 29 XV. ET TU IN ARCADIA VIXISTI—In ancient tales, 31 O friend XVI. TO W. E. HENLEY—The year runs through her 36 phases XVII. HENRY JAMES—Who comes to-night 38 XVIII. THE MIRROR SPEAKS—Where the bells 39 XIX.