I then known the French honesty in these points, I should have been quite at my ease. I had long neglected my French, and I was very rusty in it. I resolved, however, to use it on every occasion. But that language sinks so many letters in pronunciation, while the natives speak this shortened dialect with such rapidity, that it is extremely difficult for a foreigner at first to follow them. In vain I said doucement, doucement, parlez doucement. They all hurried on as fast as ever, and I was still left in the lurch. The French pronunciation may be said to be a short-hand with respect to the spelling. I soon found the inconvenience of not being able to understand them. It was in vain I contrived to ask a question. They seem by no means to be a quick people in conceiving your meaning. In this point I found them far inferior to our own people. I did, however, generally succeed in making them comprehend me; but, from their short-hand pronunciation, I could not understand them. I was therefore at a great loss, and, at first, not a little uncomfortable. On reaching the hotel I was left to shift for myself. I found my way to the box-office, and I contrived to ascertain, that, as I was a passenger all through, I might, if I chose, set off that evening at seven. I did choose this, and now I became anxious to recover my passport in time. JOHNSON'S SCOTS MUSICAL MUSEUM. MR EDITOR, OBSERVING a reference to Johnson's Musical Museum in the "Remarks on the Humour of Ancient Scottish Songs," I beg leave to send you a short account of that valuable repository of the lyric poetry and music of Scotland. The plan of the work was originally suggested to Mr James Johnson, music engraver in Edinburgh, by the late William Tytler of Woodhouselee, Esq. and the Rev. Dr Thomas Blacklock. The former wrote an excellent dissertation on Scottish music, and the latter was well known, and esteemed as a most worthy man and an ingenious poet. With regard to Scottish songs, these gentlemen, both good judges of the In subject, were of opinion, that those wild, yet pathetic and melodious strains, those fine breathings and heartfelt touches in our songs, which true genius can alone express,-were bewildered and utterly lost in a noisy accompaniment of instruments. their opinion, the full chords of a thorough bass ought to be used sparingly and with judgment, not to overpower, but to support and strengthen the voice at proper pauses: that the air itself should be first played over, by way of symphony or introduction to the song; and at the close of every stanza, a few bars of the last part of the melody should be repeated, as a relief to the voice, which it gracefully sets off: that the performer, however, ought to be left entirely at liberty to vary the symphonic accompaniment according to his own judgment, skill, fancy, and taste: that he ought not to be cramped or confined by written symphonies, which, although contrived with every possible ingenuity and art, become, by frequent repetition, equally dull, uniform, and insipid, as if they were immutably fixed on a barrel organ. In their opinion, a Scottish song admits of no cadence or capricious descant at the close of the tune, though a fine shake, which can easily be acquired by a little practice at an early period, when the vocal organs are young and flexible, forms an excellent embellishment. "A Scottish song thus performed," says Mr Tytler, "is among the highest entertainments to a musical genius. An artist on the violin may display the magic of his fingers, in running from the top to the bottom of the finger-board in various intricate capricios, which, at most, will only excite surprise; while a very middling performer, of taste and feeling, in a subject that admits of the pathos, will touch the heart in its finest sensations. Genius and feeling, however, are not confined to country or climate. A maid at her spinning wheel, who knew not a note of music, with a sweet voice and the force of a native genius, has oft drawn tears from my eyes. That gift of Heaven, in short, is not to be defined-it can only be felt." The plan of publishing our Scottish songs in this simple, elegant, and chaste manner, was highly approved of by the late Mr Stephen Clarke. This celebrated organist and musician A readily agreed to select, arrange, and harmonize the whole of the melodies; a task which, from his brilliant genius, fine taste, and profound scientific knowledge, he was eminently qualified to perform. Johnson, on his part, undertook to engrave all the plates carefully with his own hands. work was therefore to be expected, which, on the one hand, would open a far more wide and extensive range amid the flowers of Caledonian music and poetry than had ever before been attempted, and all this, too, at a charge so moderate as to be within the reach of every lover of native song; whilst, on the other hand, the Museum itself, from the combination of such talents, would indeed be creditable to Scotland as a national work: nor was this expectation disappointed. Whilst the first volume of the work was yet in progress, the publisher had the good fortune to become acquainted with Burns, who had come to Edinburgh for the purpose of superintending the printing of a new edition of his Poems, about to be published in that city. Burns no sooner saw the nature and scope of the Museum, than he became its best promoter and firmest support. He entered at once into the views of the publisher, with that disinterestedness of friendship and ardency of zeal so eminently conspicuous in the character of this great bard. In a letter to Mr Candlish, he says, "I am engaged in assisting an honest Scots enthusiast (meaning Johnson), a friend of mine, who is an engraver, and has taken it into his head to publish a collection of all our songs set to music, of which the words and music are done by Scotsmen. This, you will easily guess, is an undertaking exactly to my taste. I have collected, begged, borrowed, and stolen, all the songs I could meet with. Pompey's Ghost, words and music, I beg from you immediately, to go into his second number: the first is already published. I shall shew you the first number when I see you in Glasgow, which will be in a fortnight or less. Do be so kind as send the song in a day or two: you cannot imagine how much it will oblige me." me During the further progress of the Museum, Burns not only supplied the publisher with various songs collected from his friends, but likewise com posed a very great number himself, expressly for that work, which are admitted to be the finest productions of his lyric muse. Burns was quite at home in composing for the Museum. He seldom, indeed, altered one line, or even a single word, of any thing that he wrote for the work, after it was once committed to paper. Johnson, though a good engraver, was, happily for our bard, neither an amateur nor a critic: the songs which Burns wrote for this work, therefore, were the genuine, warm, and unfettered effusions of his fertile muse. He also furnished many charming original melodies, collected by himself in various parts of Scotland, which, but for him, would in all probability have been utterly lost or forgotten. Indeed, from the month of December 1786, down to the period of his death in July 1796, Burns was almost the sole editor of the poetical department of the Museum. Nor did his zeal and wishes for its success seem to diminish, even at the approach of death. In a letter which he wrote to Johnson on the 4th of July 1796, only seventeen days before his decease, he thus expresses himself: "How are you, my dear friend? and how comes on your fifth volume? Let me hear from you as soon as convenient. Your work is a great one; and now that it is nearly finished, I see, if we were to begin again, two or three things that might be mended; yet I will venture to prophesy, that to future ages your publication will be the text book and standard of Scottish song and music.” Our lamented poet lived to see the first, second, third, fourth, and the greater part of the fifth volume of the Museum finished. He had even furnished Johnson with materials almost sufficient to complete the sixth volume, which was published after the poet's death. 66 At an early period of the work, Burns, in a letter to Johnson, communicated a plan which he thought would tend much to gratify the purchasers of the Museum, and even enhance the value of the work. “Give,” says he, a copy of the Museum to my worthy friend Mr Peter Hill, bookseller, to bind for me, interleaved with blank leaves, exactly as he did the Laird of Glenriddel's, that I may insert every anecdote I can learn, together with my own criticisms and remarks on the songs. A copy of this kind I will leave with you, to publish at some after-period, by way of making the Museum a book famous to the end of time, and you renowned for ever." Johnson immediately sent him an interleaved copy; and upon mentioning the improvement that had been suggested by the bard to Dr Blacklock, Mr Tytler, and some other of his friends in Edinburgh, they unanimously approved of the measure, and agreed to communicate to Burns all the anecdotes and remarks they could collect respecting the national songs of Scotland. Some progress was accordingly made in this new department; but in consequence of the death of Mr Tytler, Dr Blacklock, Mr Masterton, Mr Clarke, Mr Burns, and, last of all, of the publisher himself, it was never brought to a conclusion. What had been done, however, was given to the public in the volume entitled "Reliques of Robert Burns," edited by the late Mr Cromek. The Museum is unquestionably by far the most extensive and valuable collection of Scottish songs that has ever been published. Each of the six volumes contains a hundred melodies, with a still greater number of songs, to which they are adapted. Besides those beautiful songs which appear in other collections, the Museum presents us with many ancient Scottish ballads, and a very great variety of those old, curious, and exceedingly humorous songs, with their original melodies, the favourite lyrics of our early ancestors, to be found in no other musical publication whatever. It has for a considerable time been matter of regret, that this work has long been out of print, and few, if any, copies have been seen in the market for some years past. I have, however, the pleasure of announcing to your musical friends, that a new and improved edition of the Museum is now in a state of forwardness. The original plates, including the manuscripts of the poetry and music of that work, have been purchased (as you perhaps may have heard) by Mr Blackwood, from the heirs of Mr Johnson. That department, which was left unfinished, has been committed to the charge of a gentleman who was a mutual friend of the late publisher and the bard, and who had, during their lives, collected a variety of mate rials for assisting them to complete their work. I have seen a considerable part of his manuscript, and have been permitted to take some extracts from it, which I now present to your readers. SCOTUS. "SONG 66. Guilderoy. "This song is improperly titled in Johnson's Museum. It should have been called, Ah, Chloris, could I now but sit,' to the tune of Guilderoy. The tender and pathetic stanzas in the Museum were composed by the Right Honourable Duncan Forbes, Lord President of the Court of Session in Scotland, about the year 1710. They were addressed to Miss Mary Rose, the elegant and accomplished daughter of Hugh Rose, Esq. of Kilravock. To this lady, with whom he had been acquainted from her infancy, he was afterwards united in marriage. bore him one son, who was his heir and successor; but Mrs Forbes did not long survive this event. His Lordship, however, remained a widower from that time till his She decease, which happened on the 10th of December 1747, in the sixty-third year of his age. His remains were interred in the Greyfriars' church-yard. "It is not a little curious, that Ritson places the song, Ah, Chloris,' at the head of his collection of English songs, and observes, that he never heard of its having been set to music. Perhaps it did not at that time occur to him, that a Scotchman might be able to write very good English, or that every person of musical taste, from Berwick to Johnny Groat's House, could have set him right with regard to the music, had he thought proper to make any inquiry about it during his residence in Scotland. "With respect to the hero of the ballad properly called Guilderoy,' we learn the following particulars from Spalding and other historians. Guilderoy was a notorious freebooter in the Highlands of Perthshire, who, with his gang, for a considerable time infested the country, committing the most barbarous outrages on the inhabitants. Seven of these ruffians, however, were at length apprehended, through the vigilance and activity of the Stewarts of Athole, and conducted to Edinburgh, where they were tried, condemned, and executed, in February 1638. Guilderoy, seeing his accomplices taken and hanged, went up, and in revenge burned several houses belonging to the Stewarts in Athole. This new atrocity was the prelude to his ruin. A proclamation was issued, offering £1000 for his apprehension. The inhabitants rose en masse, and pursued him from place to place, till at length he, with five more of his associates, was overtaken and secured. They were next carried to Edinburgh, where, after trial and conviction, they expiated their offences on the gallows in the month of July 1638. "If we may place any reliance on traditional report, it would seem that Guilderoy belonged to the proscribed Clan Gregor,' and that the ballad was composed, not long after his death, by a young woman of no mean talent, who unfortunately became attached to this daring robber, and had cohabited with him for some time before his execution. That the ballad was well known in England in 1650, is evident from a black letter copy of it, printed at least as early as that date. There is another copy of it, with some slight variations, in Playford's "Wit and Mirth," first edition of vol. iii. printed in 1702. Both these copies, however, though possessing several stanzas of real poetical merit, contained many indelicate luxuriances, that required the aid of the pruning-hook. This was performed by a lady in every respect qualified for such an undertaking, namely, Miss Halket of Pitferran, afterwards married to Sir Henry Wardlaw of Pitreavie in Fifeshire, the wellknown authoress of Hardiknute. In Lady Wardlaw's amended copy, which did not appear till after her death, some of the old stanzas are retained, others retouched or expunged, and several from her own pen are added. The ballad, in its present shape, is now excellent and unexceptionable. It is rather long for insertion here, but it may be seen in the collections of Herd, Ritson, Gilchrist, and many others." "SONG 37. Mary's Dream. "This beautiful song, as well as the first set of the tune, are the composition of Mr John Lowe, who was born at Kenmore in Galloway, in the year 1750. His father was gardener to the Honourable Mr Gordon of Kenmore, son of that unfortunate nobleman who paid the forfeit of his life and titles for his adherence to the House of Stuart in 1715. Lowe was the eldest son his first return from college, he became About this time Mr Alexander Miller, a surgeon, who had been engaged to Mary, one of the young ladies of Airds, was unfortunately lost at sea; an event which would probably have been forgotten, but for the exquisitely tender and pathetic song of Mary's Dream,' which has given to it immortality. It is presumed that our poet was sensibly alive to the misfortunes of a young lady, whose sister had inspired him also with the tenderest passion; but it was not their fate to be united. 6 "After finishing his studies at the Divinity Hall, and seeing no prospect of obtaining a living in his native country, Mr Lowe, in 1773, embarked for America. For some time he acted as tutor to the family of a brother of the great Washington; a situation which supplied some hopes of advance ment. He next opened an academy for the education of young gentlemen, in Fredericksburgh, Virginia, which was given up upon his taking orders in the church of England. After this event he married a Virginian lady, who unfortunately proved his ruin. She was not only regardless of his happiness, but even unfaithful to his bed. Overwhelmed with shame, disappointment, and sorrow, the vigour of his constitution was broken, and he fell into an untimely grave in 1798, in the forty-eighth His remains were interred year of his age. under the shade of two palm trees near Fredericksburgh, without even a stone to write, Mary, weep no more for me.' "This truly elegant and popular ballad, however, was originally composed by Lowe in the Scottish dialect, before he gave it the polished English form. As the older ballad may be interesting, even in its rude form, to some readers, it is here subjoined. 1 of a numerous family, and received a pretty "The lovely moon had climb'd the hill Where eagles big aboon the Dee, Brought joy to every body's ee: A voice drapt saftly on her ear- Sweet Mary, weep nae mair for me!' To see from whence the voice might be, 1817. On the Use of the Common Thermometer as a Hygrometer. And there she saw young Sandy stand, "The wind slept when we left the bay, Wha strave wi' him but strave in vain. Sae, Mary, weep nae mair for me! "Take aff thae bride sheets frae thy bed, Which thou hast faulded down for me; Unrobe thee of thy earthly stole-- I'll meet, in heaven aboon, wi' thee.' Three times the gray cock flapt his wing, To mark the morning lift his ee, And thrice the passing spirit said, 'Sweet Mary, weep nae mair for me." " ON THE USE OF THE COMMON THERMOMETER AS A HYGROMETER. MR EDITOR, I AM happy to observe, that you intend to devote a certain portion of your interesting miscellany to the subject of Meteorology, and I have no doubt you can number, among your readers, a great many other meteorologists besides your Reporters. It is a subject to which, from long habit, I feel very partial, and, with your leave, I will submit a few remarks on the use of the hygrometer, for the consideration of such as may be engaged in similar pursuits. It is not my intention to enter into any long or minute detail of the numerous instruments that have been proposed for ascertaining the state of the atmosphere with regard to moisture, or to attempt deciding on the comparative merits of Saussure's hair, and De Luc's whalebone. I believe it may be safely affirmed, that a correct, at least a permanently correct, hygrometer never can be constructed on the principle of any such contrivance, and for this obvious reason: However accurately the instrument may be originally made, it no sooner begins to operate than it begins to change, the alternate expansions and contractions of the substance producing necessarily, however slowly, some derangement in its natural texture. The contrivance itself may be extremely ingenious, but, from VOL. I. 381 the very nature of the materials employed, such hygrometers must be imperfect, in as much as they are subject to changes, the extent of which it is impossible exactly to appreciate. Now, is it not very strange, that after all the complaints that we have heard among meteorologists and philosophers in general, about the want of a hygrometer on accurate principles, they should hesitate a single moment about adopting one as simple and accurate as it is elegant and philosophical? I allude to the differential thermometer of Professor Leslie, which the ingenious inventor has applied, among many other useful purposes, to that of measuring the relative dryness of the atmosphere, and which does so upon principles as fixed and determinate as those of the common thermometer. For the sake of such of your readers as may not be conversant with the subject, I shall give a short description of it nearly in the Professor's own words: "It consists of a thermometer tube, curved like the letter U, with a hollow ball at each extremity containing air, and holding an intermediate portion of sulphuric acid, tinged with carmine. When these balls are of the same temperature, the liquor will remain stationary, but if one of the balls be warmer than the other, the liquor, urged by the increased elasticity of the air, will descend proportionally on that side. To measure the difference of heat between the two balls, the whole interval between freezing and boiling water is divided into a thousand equal parts. If one of the balls be covered with cambric or silk, and wetted with pure water, the instrument forms a complete hygrometer; for it will mark, by the descent of the column in the opposite stem, the constant diminution of temperature which is caused by evaporation from that humid surface, and it must consequently express the relative dryness of the ambient air." It is hardly necessary to observe, that hygrometers constructed on this principle must always indicate the same dryness, in the same circumstances, and may therefore be as readily compared with one another as thermometers themselves. But my object is not so much to discuss the merits of the instrument itself, as to shew that the common thermometer may be us3 C |