SIR WALTER SCOTT BART.Lithographed for the Modern Scottish Minstrel, by Schenck & McFarlane.
THE
MODERN SCOTTISH MINSTREL;
OR,
THE SONGS OF SCOTLAND OF THEPAST HALF CENTURY.
WITH
Memoirs of the Poets,
AND
SKETCHES AND SPECIMENS
IN ENGLISH VERSE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED
MODERN GAELIC BARDS.
BY
CHARLES ROGERS, LL.D.
F.S.A. SCOT.
IN SIX VOLUMES;
VOL. I.
EDINBURGH:
ADAM & CHARLES BLACK, NORTH BRIDGE,
BOOKSELLERS AND PUBLISHERS TO HER MAJESTY.
M.DCCC.LV.
EDINBURGH:
PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY,
PAUL'S WORK.
TO
WILLIAM STIRLING, ESQ. OF KEIR, M.P.,
AN ENLIGHTENED SENATOR, AN ACCOMPLISHED SCHOLAR, ANDAN INGENIOUS POET,
THIS FIRST VOLUME
OF
The Modern Scottish Minstrel
IS,
WITH HIS KIND PERMISSION, MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED,
BY
HIS VERY OBEDIENT, FAITHFUL SERVANT,
CHARLES ROGERS.
PREFACE.
Scotland has probably produced a more patriotic andmore extended minstrelsy than any other country in theworld. Those Caledonian harp-strains, styled by SirWalter Scott "gems of our own mountains," have frequentlybeen gathered into caskets of national song,but have never been stored in any complete cabinet;while no attempt has been made, at least on an amplescale, to adapt, by means of suitable metrical translations,the minstrelsy of the Gaël for Lowland melody.The present work has been undertaken with the view ofsupplying these deficiencies, and with the further designof extending the fame of those cultivators of Scottishsong—hitherto partially obscured by untowardcircumstances, or on account of their own diffidence—andof affording a stimulus toward