6.

Lady

Sir

tenced to a dose of tincture of rhubarb, more varied than elegant. Nature to the last seems to have hesitated whether to make her a man or a woman. Anne tells us that her tastes led her to hunt with her brothers, to wrestle with the stable-boys, and to saw wood with the carpenter. She worked well in iron, could shoe a horse quicker than the blacksmith, made excellent trunks, played well on the fiddle, sung a man's song in a bass voice, and was by many people suspected of being a man." Walter Scott knew her well, and speaks of her "jockey coat, masculine stride, strong voice, and occasionally round oath." He relates an instance of her rudeness. His sister was visiting at a friend's house, and met Sophy Johnstone there. She happened to move her feet into the space which the masculine Sophy considered peculia ly her own, whereupon the gentle Anne Scott was startled with a kick on the shins, and the inquiry, "What is the lassie wab

classically just in degrees, as the eldest, consequently the most guilty, had the last and most offensive glass in the bottle. All this shows the countess to have been a disciplinarian of the first order. The old earl was of a more indulgent nature; and although he considered it a point of honor to leave the management of the children entirely to their mother, yet at times he would remonstrate. "Odsfish! madam!" he would say, "I will not have it so; you will break the spirit of my young troop." That, however, would be about the last thing to happen to a Lindsay, and all these much-chastised and often-incarcerated boys early won military distinction, or made their way honorably in private life. Moreover they surrounded with comfort and kindly attention the serene old age of their once inflexible little mother, who now permitted herself the luxury of being gentle. Lady Anne Lindsay was but twenty-stering [weaving] there at?" She must one when "Auld Robin Gray" was written. The history of the song is interesting enough, even curious enough, to be worth telling pretty fully. Like many of Burns's best efforts it was written to supplant a bad song, -known by its refrain, "The bridegroom grat [.e., wept] when the sun gaed down"

which had become associated with a good air. The rude words with their tune first came to the ears of Lady Anne through an eccentric character named Sophy Johnstone, who went to Balcarres on a visit, and found the place so much to her liking that she remained for thirteen years. In these days of conventionality it is positively refreshing to read of an original type of female such as this Sophy appears to have been. Her father was what is commonly called an odd dog. When Sophy was born he resolved to try an experiment with her, and this experiment took the form of sending her into the world with absolutely no education of any kind. The result of the experiment could hardly be called successful. She taught herself to read, and prevailed on the butler to give her lessons in writing, but her other accomplishments were

have had some likeable qualities, however, since she secured the friendship not only of the Balcarres family, but also of Mrs. Cockburn, author of "The Flowers of the Forest," and one of the most remarkable women in the Scottish society of last century. During her later years she developed into a wretched miser, and any one who went to visit her was met with an outstretched palm and the demand, "What have ye brought?"

It is curious to think that but for this

eccentric creature the world might never have had " Auld Robin Gray," the queen of all Scotch ballads, and, as Scott has it, "A real pastoral worth all the dialogues which Corydon and Phillis have had together since the days of Theocritus downwards." Lady Anne became quite enraptured with the old melody sung by the harsh-voiced Sophy, but the rude words were a stumblingblock, and she began to think of replacing them by a new song. Writing to Sir Walter Scott many years afterwards (in 1823) she says:

I longed to siag old Sophy's air to different words, to give to its plaintive tones some little history of virtuous distress in

was sung by youth and beauty for five years or more; had a romance composed from it by a man of eminence; was the subject of a play, of an opera, of a pantomime; was sung by the united armies in America, acted by Punch, and afterwards danced by dogs in the street, but never more honored than by the present investigation!

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humble life, such as might suit it. While attempting to effect this in my closet, I called to my little sister, now Lady Hardwicke, who was the only person near me: "I have been writing a ballad, my dear. I am oppressing my heroine with many misfortunes. I have already sent her Jamie to sea, and broken her father's arm, and made her mother fall sick, and given her auld Robin Gray for her lover; but I wish to load It was not until the year 1823 that her with a fifth sorrow within the four lines, Lady Anne made open avowal of her poor thing! Help me to one." "Steal authorship, when she furnished Sir the cow, sister Anne," said the little Eliz- Walter Scott with all the particulars of abeth. The cow was immediately lifted | Auld Robin's conception and history, in and the song completed. a long letter which the author of Waverley" printed as a contribution to the Bannatyne Club. Long before this, however, she had been identified in private circles. Lady Anne herself tells that happening to sing the song one day at Dalkeith House, with more feeling perhaps than belonged to a common ballad, Lady Frances Scott smiled and fixing her eyes on the singer said, "You wrote this song yourself." The blush which followed at once revealed the culprit. "Perhaps," said Lady Anne, "I blushed the more, being then very young, from the recollection of the coarse words from which I had borrowed the tune, and was afraid of the raillery which might have taken place if it had been discovered I had ever heard such words." On this occasion, by the way, Lady Anne seems to have met with some curious criticisms on the song. The Laird of Dalzell, for instance, said privately to her, "My dear, the next time you sing that song, try to and instead change the words a little bit, of singing, To mak' the crown a pound, my Jamie yued to sea, say To make it twenty merks, for a Scottish pound is but twenty pence, and Jamie was not such a fool as to leave Jenny and go to sea to lessen his gear. It is that line," whispered the laird, "that tells me the song was written by some bonnie lassie that didna ken the value of the Scots money so well as an auld writer in the town of Edinburgh would have kent it." There was a writer in the town of Edinburgh, however, who dissented altogether from old Dalzell's opinion. “A crown," said Sir Walter Scott, "is no denomination of Scottish money, and

The ballad almost immediately got into circulation, but without the name of the author. Like the Baroness Nairne, Lady Anne shrunk from literary fame, and for more than fifty years, during which time there had been many speculations, some of them wild enough, regarding the history and authorship of "Auld Robin Gray," she carefully remained silent. "I was pleased in secret," she writes to Scott, "with the approbation the ballad met with, but such was my dread of being suspected of writing anything, perceiving the shyness it created in those who could write nothing, that I carefully kept my own secret.' Some of the controversialists recognized the song as a modern production, while others stoutly maintained that it was of the sixteenth century, some even suggesting that it was the work of the ill-starred David Rizzio! So keen became the discussion that a reward of twenty guineas was offered to any one who would definitely settle the question of the authorship. The Society of Antiquaries took the matter up, and deputed their secretary, Mr. Jerningham, to wait on Lady Anne and examine her closely on the subject. Lady Anne not unnaturally resented this impertinence, and overwhelmed the unlucky secretary in a reply which more than anything else shows the great popularity which the song had even then attained.

The ballad in question [said Lady Anne] has, in my opinion, met with attention beyond its deserts. It set off with having a very fine tune set to it by a doctor of music,

therefore the pound to which it is to be | is impatient even of the substitution of augmented is not a Scottish pound. If something decidedly better in its place.

it were objected to this exposition that it is unnatural that Jamie should speak of any other denomination of coin than the Scotch, I would produce you a dozen old papers to prove that the coast of Fife in ancient times carried on a great trade with Holland and other countries, and of course French crowns and pounds sterling were current denominations among them." Sir Walter argues the point at considerable length, but surely prosaic matters of this kind need not enter into the consideration of a work of fancy like "Auld Robin Gray." The author admitted that there was "something" in the old laird's objections, but she never corrected the alleged error by changing the pound, which has always passed current in its present state.

Various readings of "Auld Robin Gray" were sanctioned by Lady Anne herself, and the multiplication of texts has proved rather annoying. One important variation attracted the notice of Sir Walter Scott. The fifth verse originally read,

My heart it said nay, and I looked for Jamie back,

But hard blew the winds, and his ship was a wrack,

His ship was a wrack-why didna Jamie dee,

Or why am I spared to cry Wae's me?

In the copy which Lady Anne sent to Scott the third line here appeared as, "The ship it was a wreck, why didna Jeanie dee ?" Of course the keen eye of the master at once detected the change.

I am not quite sure [wrote Sir Walter] whether in their mutual distress the wish that Jamie had not survived, beloved as he was, is not more deeply pathetic than that which she utters for her own death. Besides, Jamie's death is immediately connected with the shipwreck, and her own more remotely so,-"It had been better for either of us to have died, than to be as we are now" -I speak all this under great correction, because when one's mind and ear become accustomed to a reading, as mine to this one, it frequently happens that one

To this gentle remonstrance Lady Anne made the following reply : —

Your query is a very natural one. When I wrote it first it was, Why didna Jamie dee?"Would he not have been happier dead than seeing my wretchedness and feeling his own ?" But the pens of others have changed this to their own fancy, and I suppose my young transcriber has put the word Jeanie instead of Jamie in the copy you got. I feel the justness of your criticism, and from the first meant it to be as you recommend it.

The author of "The Lives of the Lindsays " prints what he calls the genuine text along with a curious French version by Florian. This text is not quite identical with the version in popular use; and as Lord Lindsay admits that he has "taken the liberty" of making it up "from the different authentic copies," in his possession it can only be genuine in a restricted sense. He gives, however, at the same time the most important of the various readings of the ballad, so that it is in the power of every one to arrange the text to his own liking. "Auld Robin Gray," in any of its forms, has been fortunate in the admiration of the world, and unfortunate only in the abuse of Pinkerton. Ritson praised it warmly, and he was not as a rule given to praising anything that had its birth in Scotland. "The elegant and accomplished authoress," says he, "has in this beautiful production, to all that tenderness and simplicity for which the Scottish song has been so much celebrated, united a delicacy of expression which it never before attained." Something of the popularity of the ballad is no doubt due to its tune. This is not the old air which Sophy Johnstone was wont to give out in stentorian tones at Balcarres, but a much finer melody, the composition of the Rev. William Leeves, of Wrington in Somersetshire.

Many years after" Auld Robin Gray" was written Lady Anne composed a second part, or continuation. This, she explained, she did to please her mother, who wished the world to know "how

tached to her that it would have slept at her feet had not Mr. Barnard objected. She had a pair of secretary birds which never ate standing, but regularly sat down to dinner; a sea-calf which had been induced to live by its mouth being filled with milk every time it opened its jaws to bewail its forlorn condition; a penguin which divided its time between

that unfortunate business of Jeanie | amused herself with a variety of pet and Jamie ended." The unfortunate animals. There was a buck, so atbusiness had much better been left as it stood. The continuation of the story was a failure, admitted to be a failure even by the author herself. In the sequel Auld Robin is made to die and young Jamie to marry the widow, which undoubtedly destroys the fine conception of the original story, the charm of which lies in the plaintive wail of Jeanie, whose life has been blighted a pond and the drawing-room; and two from a desire to save her parents from starvation. Still, there are some pretty touches, such as in the verse describing Auld Robin's watchfulness of Jeanie after learning her secret :

Nae questions he spier'd her concerning her health,

He looked at her often, but aye 'twas by stealth,

Till his heart it grew great, and sighing he feign'd

To gang to the door to see if it rain'd.

Scott disliked the continuation as a whole, because it takes away Robin Gray's honest fame, and quite injures the simplicity of the original tale where all are rendered miserable by no evil passions or culpable conduct on any side, but by a source of distress arising out of the best and most amiable feelings of all parties.

jackals which used to race round the fortifications followed by all the dogs of the colony. Lady Anne had no children herself, and as she found that large families were objects of pride with the Dutch, she disarmed the pity extended to her by taking credit for three or four tures are amusing enough. She organboys in England. Some of her advenized an expedition to the top of Table Mount, herself being the only lady of the party. She donned for the occasion a portion of Mr. Barnard's attire, which, of course, provoked some banter between them as to her " wearing the breeks." She reached the top first, attributing her agility as much to the lightness of her heart as to the lightness of her heels, and she led the party in "God Save the King!" on the summit. Lady Anne's journals give some curious revelations of the state of the colony at this time. A nobleman called at the Cape on his way to India to assume the office of governor-general, but the Dutchman's house where he was accommodated was so infested with bugs that his Excellency was obliged to beseech Lady Anne to have mercy on him, and she put him up in a back parlor, opening on the yard where dwelt her aforementioned pets.

While her brothers were searching for wealth or fame in foreign lands Lady Anne resided with a sister in London, where she came in contact with many of the wits and statesmen of the day. Men of distinction and wealth had sought her hand in vain; she remained heart-whole until captured late in life by Mr. Barnard, a son of the Bishop of Limerick. Barnard, who was clever though not wealthy, was ap- When the Cape was restored to the pointed colonial secretary under Lord Dutch in 1802, Lady Anne returned to Macartney, and the newly wedded pair England. Six years later Mr. Barnard set out for the Cape of Good Hope, died, and she went to reside with her which for them did not belie its name. sister, Lady Margaret, in London. The Lady Anne seems to have spent a gay years that remained to her she devoted time at the Cape, giving balls and par- mainly to compiling materials for a conties, and doing what she could "To tinuation of the "History of the Lindreconcile the Dutch to the sight of their says.' To the end she was as cheerful masters by the attraction of fiddles and as any "light Lindsay" could well be. French horns." In her own house she "When alone," she says, "I am not

five-and-twenty; I can entertain my-grown old, but the circumstances attending self with a succession of inventions, the whole remaining fresh in their minds which would be more effective if they from having less to think of than he had, were fewer. I forget that I am sixty- they presumed he would have a melancholy eight, and if by chance I see myself in pleasure in looking at the picture of his first wife. He replied that her picture was unthe glass, looking very abominable, I do necessary to recall features he never could not care." Her stores of anecdote forget there she was! (looking at a paintseem to have been peculiarly rich. As ing well appointed as to frame, and honora specimen of her piquant manner of ably stationed over the chimney-piece) her relating a story, take this of her grand- manner-her air! The honest vrow smiled; father, Earl Colin, one of the hand- it was one of the four seasons! somest men of his day, who had begun Lady Anne Barnard passed away in his matrimonial career by captivating 1825 with vigor of intellect unimpaired, a Dutch lady, cousin to William of and her delightful conversation enliOrange. Lord Balcarres is on his way vened to the close by the proverbial to France and stops in Holland that he cheerfulness of her race. She left no may pay a visit to the relations of the proof of her genius which could be first Lady Balcarres. placed on an equality with " Auld Robin He appeared before them with that miti-Gray." She wrote other poetical pieces, gated mildness of well-bred sorrow, which, after a lapse of fifteen or twenty years, and two or three wives in the interim, was not supposed to be very lively. They were all

but none of them ever became popular ; and she goes down to fame simply as the author of a single song.

J. CUTHBERT HADDEN.

A RUSSIAN VERSION OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE CHARGE. — Reuter' sspecial correspondent now in Russia met in the course of his investigations a steward, Ivan Ivanovitch, who had been through the Crimean War.

air, and, of course, they were easier to guard against like that. The men were mad, sir. They never seemed to think of the tremendous odds against them, or of the frightful carnage that had taken place in He was wounded at the battle of their ranks in the course of that long, desBalaclava, and gave the correspondent a perate ride. They dashed in among us, vivid description of the charge of the Light shouting, cheering, and cursing. I never Brigade: "We were so sorry for them, he saw anything like it. They seemed persaid, they were such fine fellows, and they fectly irresistible, and our fellows were quite had such splendid horses. It was the mad-demoralized. The fatal mistake we made dest thing that was ever done. I cannot in the morning was to receive the charge of understand it. They broke through our your Heavy Brigade standing, instead of lines, took our artillery, and then, instead of meeting it with a counter-shock. We had capturing our guns and making off with so many more men than you, that had we them, they went for us. I had been in the continued our charge downhill, instead of charge of the Heavy Brigade in the morn- calling a halt just at the critical moment, ing, and was slightly wounded. We had all we should have carried everything before unsaddled, and were very tired. Suddenly us. The charge of your Heavy Brigade was we were told, the English are coming.' magnificent, but they had to thank our bad 'Confound them,' we said. My colonel management for the victory. We liked was very angry, and ordered his men to give your fellows. When our men took prisonAwno quarter. I was lying at some distance ers they used to give them our vodka. with my wound bandaged when I saw them ful stuff it was, more like spirits of wine coming. They came on magnificently. We than anything else. Your fellows used to thought they were drunk from the way they offer us their rum in exchange, but we did held their lances. Instead of holding them not care for it: it was too soft and mild. under their armpits they waved them in the The Russian soldier must have his vodka."