LADY NAIRNE'S SONGS.*

THE name of Lady Nairne is no longer a strange one to English readers. Her capital Scotch songs, indeed, were old acquaintances long before the authoress's identity had been more than matter of rumour ; her own positive prohibition and uncommon self-command under all kinds of attacks, both accidental and intentional, having for many years baffled all endeavours to penetrate the mystery. Not much more than two years ago, we learnt that a fairly well-read Scotch gentleman was heard to exclaim with considerable irritation, that to take away the merit of having written "The Laud of the Leal" from Bunlis was "atrocious robbery." Many knew better, but the secret was well kept by those old friends who loved Lady Nairne, and were happy to meet her wishes, though at considerable cost to themselves. Which of us is there that some time or other may not have been intrusted with a secret, which, if divulged, could bring nothing but honour and a feeling of tender sympathy towards the friend whose fame was most precious to us? One can just manage in such cases to be faithful, but it is not easy, especially not if the secrecy required appears to us altogether the effect of a species of literary prudery, with which we are unable to sympathize.

Lady Nairne's case, however, was not one of mere personal feeling. When she began to write, nay, during great part of her literary career, the cultivated ladies of Scotland were a race by themselves. They knew one another, and knew pretty well, each, what each could do ; and they did it, faithful to each other, but under the strictest rule of secrecy. It was in this way " The Scottish Minstrel " was published, its object being that of adapting to national airs words of a more refined character than had hitherto been given to them ; and its presiding spirit was Lady Nairne. It was begun under the management and at the risk of Mr. Robert Purdie, music publisher, of Edinburgh, in 1821. Some of the Committee of Ladies who unnertook it were known to him, among others the Misses Hume, daughters of Baron Hume. They were in full possession of the knowledge of Mrs. Nairue's talent for song-writing, though carefully concealing it even from their own father ; and they negotiated for her services with Purdie, on condition of introducing her under an assumed name, " Mrs. Bogan of Bogan." So well was the secret kept that even when he had interviews with his correspondent, Mr. Purdie knew her by no other designation ; and while Wilson was singing her songs all over England, Scotland, and Ireland, the authorship remained a mystery.

We have briefly adverted to these facts, now well known. Of course such a mode of publication had its evils,—one of which unfortunately remains, and will remain,—we mean the great difficulty of ascertaining precisely the authorship of some of the songs, not always sent even under the Began superscription, but under different initials; and, moreover, encouraging an anonymous author to make numerous alterations, not always for the better. Many years after the issue of "The Scottish Minstrel," Lady Nairne consented to the publication of her songs in a separate form, provided her name was not given with them; and accordingly "The Lays of Strathearn " were preparing, but not completed, when the authoress died. In these we are informed seventy of Lady Nairne's songs are inserted, and thirteen more were added on a second edition. The accompaniment of music rendered the work too expensive for large circulation, and it is to be regretted that we cannot in every case have Lady Nairne's own attestation to the authorship. Still, a great many are well authenticated, and in the present volume it will be seen that Dr. Rogers has to some extent performed his work well, the notes to some of the songs giving much of the explanation which was needed, and in one or two cases, as in that of " The Land of the Leal," giving a very interesting sketch of family history. Many readers will at all events be for the first time able to hold in their hands a collection of these songs, apart from the musical accompaniments, and apparently with the sanction of the surviving members of Lady Nairne's family. There is little that is new, nor does that little appear to us of much value ; but very many who have long laughed over " The Laird of Cockpen " are perhaps unacquainted with "Ye'll mount, Gude Man !" a capital dialogue between a Scotch lady and her husband, ending in a catastrophe: It is a song, founded in fact, with variation. The hero, on the authority of Mr. Philip Ainslie in his Reminiscences, is said to have been John, twelfth Lord Gray, who as Lord-Lieutenant of Perthshire had waited on the Duke of Cumberland, but been so coldly received that he went home in a tiff• to his castle (Kinfauns), and resolved from that moment to join the standard of the Prince. His wife dared not venture on open opposition, but being a Hanoverian, she treacherously managed (so the prose narrative goes) to scald her husband's legs when bathing them before he retired to rest. The poor Baron being thus imprisoned was kept in inaction till after the battle of Culloden, when he returned to his loyalty. It will be seen that the story is somewhat altered in the telling : " Ye's, MOUNT, GUDE Max ! " LEDDY.

"'Ye'll mount, gude man, ye'll mount an' ride,

Ye'll cross the burn syne doun the loch side ;

Then up 'mang the hills an' thro' the muir an' heather, An' join great Argyle where loyal men gather.'

" Laren.

Indeed, honest luckie, I think ye're no blate, To bid loyal men gang ony sic gate ; For I'm gaen to fecht for true loyaltie, Had the Prince ne'er anither, he still will lose me.'

"LEDDY.

" About Charlie Stuart we ne'er could agree,

But &aria, for awe, be counsell'd by me ; Tak' nae part at a'—bide quietly at hame, An' ne'er heed a Campbell, McDonal', or Graham.'

"Limn.

"'Na, na, gude wife ! for that winna do, My Prince is in need, his friends they are few; I aye lo'ed the Stuarts : I'll join them the day, Sae gie me my boots, for my boots I will hae.'

“LEDDY.

"'Oh! saftly, gude man! I think ye're gang mad, I hae na the heart to prin on your cockaud ; The Prince, as ye ca' him, will never succeed, Ye'll lose your estate, an' may be your head.'

" LAIRD.

" Come, cheer ye, my dear, an' dry up your tears !

I hae my hopes, an' I hae my fears,

But I'll raise my men, an' a' that is given, To aid the gude cause,—then leave it to Heaven.

'But haste ye now, haste ye—for I mann be gaun, The mare's at the yett, the bugle is blown ; Gie me my bonnet, it's far in the day, I'm no for a dish,—there's nae time to stay.'

"LEDDY.

"'Oh dear, tak' but one—it may do ye gudo.'

'But what ails the woman ? she surely is wad ; She's lifted the kettle, but somehow it conp'd* On the legs o' the laird, wha roar'd an' wha loup'd.

"LAIRD.

"'MD brent, I'm brent ! how cam' it this way ? I I fear ll no ride for mony a day.

Send aff the men, and to Prince Charlie say, My heart is wi' him, but I'm tied by the tae.'

The wily wife Reached, an' the Laird did na see, The smile on her cheek thro' the tear in her oe, Had I kent the glide man wad hae had siccan pain, The kettle, for me, and hae coup'd its lane.' "

We have not as yet mentioned other portions of this volume. The life, to say truth, is awkwardly compiled, and written in a forced, over-laudatory style, not at all in character with thembject of the biography. We should have liked a simple family notice farbetter. I Every one must see that Lady Nairne was a pure, noble, high principled, and religious woman, fully-up to the needs of domestic life; and'ever ready to aid the distressed.

" To gentle offices of love Her feet were never slow,"

and if she was a little spoiled by the adoration of a small circle, this seems to have been an unavoidable consequence of her 'position, and of the rule of secrecy she had laid down for herself. It is.not desirable to nurse up one's gifts with too much vigilance. Let the open air of criticism try them and try writers too. They will be none the worse for it, and all petty and small disguises will be avoided thereby.

The leading events of the life are pretty well known, and need only be briefly noticed here. Carolina Oliphant was the third daughter of a sturdy old Jacobite gentleman residing at Gask, in Perthshire. She was born in August, 1766, and died at the place of her birth in October, 1845. Her mother, a loss never repaired, died in 1774, but the widowed husband did not follow her till 18 years after, by which time Carolina was 26 years of age. She did not marry till 1806. The bringing-up of the daughters after the death of the mother occasioned some difficulties. First, their grandmother, old Lady Gask, came to preside in the household ; but she died in a year's time, and left the bairns to the care of her sister, Mrs. Henrietta Nairne, who seems to have performed her duties with great care, with the assistance of a governess. Here is a specimen of the sort of offer made to such a person inApril, 1778, and the manner of making it : "' Mr. 0.' [Oliphant] writes the old lady, joyns me in thinking there is no better fugue than diffidence in what one knows nothing about, 0. therefor has no doubt Mrs. Cramond (for you know I cannot call her Miss when a governess will make herself useful! to ye children, with a little practise in many things besides the needle, particularly as to behaviour, principals of religion and loyalty, a good carriage, and talking tolerable good English, which last you say Mrs. Cramond Les properly enough, and which in ye country is uecessari, that young folks may not appear clownish when presented to company. Mr. 0. approves of all you have done, and has had his ebs of fortune too ; but since Mrs. Cramond would fain have the pounds turned into guineas, he agrees, and makes her present of twelve guineas the first year and ten guineas ever after, so sends six guineas by ye bearer, for which you will take her receipt. He will send horses to Perth if Mrs. Cramond can ride ; if not, allows her to have a chaise out hero, for which he will not grudge to pay. Will you get Mr. Marconchie to come out, that the little ones may not forget all their dancing?' " The writer of this letter, Mrs. Henrietta Nairne, lived to the advanced age of ninety-nine, and died in 1802, herself in later life the charge of her grand-nieces. It is satisfactory to learn that Mrs. Cramond came, and appears to have been highly efficient, supplemented, however, by instructors in music, either harpsichord or guitar, recommended by their uncle as " a very pretty accomplishment for young ladies, and a better amusement than conversation on the modes of caps !" They did not remain always at Gask, they made occasional visits to relatives, and on the death of the father there was a great break-up among them. Then Carolina married her second cousin, Major Nairne, nine years older than herself, and they lived for some years in Edinburgh. The Major was one of the representatives of the " attainted Scotch Peers," and on the visit of George IV. to Scotland the attainder was graciously taken off in his behalf, thus enabling our poetess to bear the title of Baroness Nairne. She seems to have had a happy domestic life, with her husband and one son, their only child, visiting her kindred, sometimes travelling abroad, cultivating her taste, and writing her own songs and endeavouring to purify some of the songs of others ; but the chief trials of her life were to come. First, she lost her husband, and after some few years, her son; and from that time we gather little from the fragments Dr. Rogers gives, except that she became every year more devout in mind and habits, and if possible more benevolent and ready to help in every work of which she approved. Occasionally she wrote still. In her seventy-sixth year we have the beautiful lines beginning, "Would you be young again ?" But these and one other piece were the last, for another which occupies the concluding pages of her poems is now known not to have been written by her. She expired at the age of seventy-nine, at Gask, then the dwelling of her brother.

One is unwilling to be critical upon the memoir of Caroline Oliphant the younger, and especially on her poems, which are appended to those of her aunt. They display an amiable but not a truly poetical spirit, and they wholly want the national flavour which gives much of the charm to the songs of Lady Nairne. An engraved portrait of the latter, from a picture by Sir Watson Gordon, is prefixed to the volume.