50 ANNALS OF SCOTLAND, 



j efts to the habits of civil life ,- curbed the licerf- 

 tioufnefs of the borderers, and obliged them tcx 

 cultivate their own lands, inilead of preying upon 

 thofc of their neighbours. 



He ehafted fevero-laws againft pirates, and all 

 thofe who broke the peace, either at home or 

 abroad ; every traveller,, upon entering an inn, was 

 to lay afide all his armour, excepting a knife, be- 



thofe great mailers, Pcrgolcfc, Jomelli, Galuppi, Perez, and man/ 

 others of the prefent age, are aftonilhingly pathetic and moving. " 



Mr. Tytler, in a critical difiertation on the compoii tion and 

 harmony of the Italian mulic, endeavours to prove, that the Ita- 

 lians owe the improvement of their imific to- the early introduction 

 of the Scpttifli melody into it. 



The following teftimony of To/font the Italian poet, leaves no 

 room for further doubt refpecting the originality of our celebrated 

 airs.- u We reckon, among us moderns, James king of Scotland, 

 who not only compofed many iacretf pieces of vocal muiic, but, 

 alib, of himlelf, invented a new kind ofmiific, plaintive and melan- 

 choly, different from all others ; in which he has been imitated by 

 Carlo Gefualdo, prince of Venofa, who, in our. age, has im- 

 proved mufic with new and admirable inventions. Gefualdo is alfo 

 celebrated, by cotemporary writers, as one of the moft learned 

 and greateft compofers of vocal mufic in his time. He was, fay 

 they, the prince of muficians of* our age ; he having recalled the 

 rythmc into mulic, introduced fiicb ajlyle of modulation, that other 

 mulicians yielded the preference to him ; and all fingers and 

 players on flringed inftruments, hying afide that of others, every 

 where eagerly embraced his mufic. ** Mr.- Tytler, in doling 

 thefe extracts, exclaims in the honeft warmth of his heart, " How 

 perfectly characterrftic, this, of the pathetic ftrains of the old 

 Scottifli longs ! what an illusions teftimony to tiieir excellency ! " 



Many of ttie fineil longs feem to have been compofed by per- 

 fons above the common rank, of claffic education, and well ac- 

 quainted with the mythology of the antients. Thefe gentle fwairx 

 and nymphs relided chiefly in the partoral countries, to the fouth- 

 wardof Edinburgh. The Tweed, the Yarrow, the Galla Water, 

 the Broom of Cowden Knows, and the Bullies above Traquair, 

 were witnelTes of many tender fcenes, and will long perpetuate 

 thole tales of love in all its various fituations of hope, fuccefs, dif- 

 appointment, and defpair. Jean of Aberdeen, Lochaber no more, 

 the Birks of Invermay, Allan Water, and' other beautiful airs, do 

 honour to the more no'rthem parts of the kingdom. Invermay 

 lies on the north fide of the Ochil hills in Stratherne, Perthshire ; 

 and, at no great diftance weflward, is the Water cf Allan, which 

 gives name to .\fmalivalley, called Strathallan. 



caufe 



