SONGS OF THE NORTH.* THIS is a very handsome, and,

bating some obvious imper- fections due to its composite character, an. acceptable volume, containing close on fifty of the less familiar airs of the High- lands and Lowlands of Scotland, with illustrations reproduced

in permanent form from original drawings by artists of repute. Miss Macleod and Messrs. Boniton and Lawson have, in fact, given us in the form of an edition de lure a companion volume to the Songs of Old Ireland of Mr. A. P. Graves and Dr. Stanford, with the exception that in the collection before us the words are in the main classical, supplemented by a few original contributions by the editors and the late Principal Shairp, and several translations from the Gaelic by

Professor Blackie and other practised hands. A word of praise is due at the outset to the arrangement of the

work, a special feature of which is the printing in a separate form of the words to each song, " because," to quote from the Preface, " it seemed a pity not to give in its entirety a

fine old ballad as such, while a shorter edition of the same was more suitable for singing." This practice, adopted by at least one foreign publishing firm, we would gladly see extended to all sheet-music. More attention is undoubtedly paid to the words when printed in a detached form, and more care might possibly be bestowed upon their composition by the ballad writers of to- day, if they realised that the separate publication of their poems was no longer confined to the advertisement columns of our daily papers, and to the company of the effusions of those bards whose song is of soap, dentifrice, and steel pens. In this collection, however, the new verse stands the test of comparison with the old ballads fairly enough. Professor Blackie's renderings from the Gaelic are of unflagging spirit ; and Mr. Boalton's best contribution, "Bonnie Stratheyre," will bear quoting in full :—

" There's meadows in Lanark and mountains in Skye, And pastures in Hielands and Lawlands forbye; But there's nae greater luck that the heart could desire Than to herd the fine cattle in bonnie Stratheyre.

0, it's up in the morn and awn' to the hill, When the lang simmer days are sae warm and sae still, Till the peak o' Ben Voirlich is girdled wi' fire, And the evenin' fa's gently on bonnie Stratheyre.

Then there's mirth in the shelling and love in my breast, When the sun is gene doun andike kye are at rest; For there's mony a prince wad be proud to aspire To my winsome wee Maggie, the pride o' Stratheyre !

Her lips are like rowans in ripe simmer seen, And mild as the starlicht the glint o' her een ; Far sweeter her breath than the scent o' the briar, And her voice is sweet music in bonnie Stratheyre.

Set Flora by Colin and Maggie by me, And we'll dance to the pipes swellin' loudly and free, Till the moon in the heavens climbing higher and higher Bids us sleep on fresh brackens in bonnie Stratheyre.

Though some to gay tonne in the Lawlands will roam, And some will gang sodgerin' far from their home ;

• Songs of the North, gathered together from the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland. Edited by A. 0. Macleod and Harold Boultan. The Music arranged by Malcolm Lawson. London: Field and Titer. Yet I'll aye herd my cett'e, and bigg my sin byre, And love my ain Maggie in binuie Stratheyre."

Considering its size, the collection is catholic and fairly repre- sentative, including anti-Jacobite as well as Jacobite songs. Amongst the latter we are glad to find the fine " lament" attri- buted to Captain Ogilvie, and on which Scott founded his noble lyric, "A weary lot is thine, fair maid," more happily set by Thackeray in Tke Ifewcona,m th-in by any musician hitherto.

Of the musical arrangement of these songs it is not our pur- pose to speak in detail. The editors have certainly deserved well of the public, professional and amateur, in bringing within their reach—for the songs are published separately—many airs which, for their Intrinsic melody and the verse to which they are linked, are in welcome contrast to the insufferable inanity of the average modern ballad. This collection affords one signal proof of the fact. that the so-called " popular " song is never so popular as when it is borrowed from a melody as old as the hills. We dare say that not all our readers are aware that the once widely celebrated comic song of " Kafoozlenm," the air of which is still so familiar to all dancers of the Highland schottische, is simply an old Highland melody, which figures in this volume as a stirring song and chorus, to the words " We will take the good old way." In like manner, English audiences, and Irish too for the matter of that, may here be reminded that the fine tune of " Father O'Flynn," rendered so popular by Mr. Santley's inimitable singing, is one of the oldest and most familiar jig tunes in Kerry.

To represent these national and characteristic airs upon the pianoforte in such a way as at once to satisfy the scholar and support the singer is an exceedingly difficult task, which Mr. Lawson must be allowed to have executed creditably enough. At the same time, we venture to doubt the soundness of some of his harmonies. In No. II. ("Joy of my heart") he has alternated the old and the modern minor scales in a way which has a rather upsetting effect upon the ear. Again, in the accom- paniment to his own setting of " Proud Maisie" (p. 35, last bar), we have a G flat rubbing against an F natural in the voice

part in a decidedly "sustained and sinister" fashion, as Mr. Lawson directs, no doubt, but which is hardly justified by the

effect produced. Mr. Lawson has made a studied effort through- out to adopt the vernacular in his directions to the singer in preference to the almost universal habit of employing Italian. This is well enough, but it renders his occasional inconsistencies all the more noticeable. In such a case there should have been no exceptions to the rule ; and to write " in time " in one song and " a tempo" in another is a fault which, though venial, is deserving of remark in the case of a musician so professedly English in his terminology as Mr. Lawson.

The illustrations are of very unequal merit. Mr. Charles Keene, admirable in his delineations of bourgeois life, is not to be congratulated upon the essay into the realm of chivalry which accompanies " Gleulogie." Here we see a sodden-looking damsel, with an unmistakeable fringe of the most approved modern type, gazing out of the window of a baronial hall. It would be hard to conceive anything more exquisitely common- place or absolutely modern than the sentiment of this design, the three figures in which, with the necessary alterations of dress, would have been excellent as the occupants of an Edgware-Road omnibus. Mr. Lorimer's sketch for "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" is graceful and unaffected, the slight haziness of outline being probably due to the process of repro- duction. In the " Twa Corbin," Mr. Pettie has treated a grim theme with success ; and there is sombre power in the study of mountain and mist, by Mr. Mac Whirter, which accompanies the "Lament for Maclean of Ardgonr," a remark which also applies to " Culloden Muir," by Cecil Lawson. Mr. Whistler gives us a stretch of dreary shore, with breaking rollers and sullen sky, an undeniably powerful bit of work, and not unworthy of the beautiful air, "Turn ye to me," which it illustrates. Mr. Schmalz renders = Aye Wankin' 0 !" by a pretty faded head. The tint of the autotype may possibly be respon- sible for the washed-out appearance of the face ; but we are inclined to ascribe it to the sketchy method of the artist. Mr. Little's graceful "Fair Young Mary" is more remarkable for feeling than draughtsmanship; while Mr. Albert Moore's " Maiden of Morven," in spite of the skilful arrangement of wind-tossed drapery, suffers from a mannerism wholly at variance with the subject. The remaining illustrations, with the exception of that of Mr. Macbeth, add little to the reputa- tion of the artists who have contributed them. "Proud Maisie,"

as Mr. Fred Sandys has drawn her, is a forbidding maiden of the Rossettian type, with Medusa-like locks ; and the sentiment of Sir Noel Paton's " Leezie Lindsay " is impaired by the in- effective pose of the figures. We ought not, in conclusion, to omit some mention of the pains that have been bestowed upon this volume externally. It is a pleasure to read from a book which lies open with such exemplary flatness, a special advan- tage where the requirements of the singer are also concerned.