148 



We have in Dr. Gibson a gentleman who lived long in our own 

 neiglibourhood, and who, amid his useful and arduous professional 

 duties, found time to give songs and sketches, written in the 

 dialect, seldom equalled, never surpassed. 



And finally, we have a peer of the realm, William Earl of 

 Carlisle, for some time Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and representing 

 the name and family of Belted Will. His piece to a Jessamine 

 Tree that flourished at his old Border castle at Naworth, exhibits 

 such a striking contrast between the Border times and those that 

 he himself represented, that I make no apology for quoting it in 

 full. 



( My slight and slender jessamine tree. 



That bloomest on my Border tower, 

 Thou art more dearly loved by me 



Than all the wreaths of foreign bower. 

 I ask not, while I near thee dwell, 



Arabia's spice or Syria's rose ; 

 Thy light festoons more freshly smell, 



Thy virgin white more purely glows. 



My wild and winsome jessamine tree, 



That climbest up the dark gray wall, 

 Thy tiny flow'rets seem in glee. 



Like silver spray-drops down to fall : 

 Say, did they from their leaves thus peep, 



When mail'd moss-troopers rode the hill ; 

 When helmed warders paced the keep, 



And bugles blew for Belted Will ? 



My free and feathery jessamine tree, 



Within the fragrance of thy breath 

 Yon dungeon grated to its key. 



And the chain'd captive sigh'd for death. 

 On Border fray, on feudal crime, 



I dream not, while I gaze on thee ; 

 The chieftains of that stem old time 



Could ne'er have loved a jessamine tree. 



The first poet who wrote in the Cumberland dialect was Josiah 

 Ralph, born soon after the year 1700. It is best, when it is 

 possible, to let one poet act as the historian and interpreter of 



