46 NETHER LOCHABER. 



Sallow his brow, and russet bare 

 Are now the sister-heights of Yair. 

 The sheep, before the pinching heaven, 

 To sheltered dale and down are driven, 

 Where yet some faded herbage pines 

 And yet a watery sunbeam shines : 

 In meek despondency they eye 

 The wither'd sward and wintry sky, 

 And far beneath their summer hill 

 Stray sadly by Glenkinnon's rill : 

 The shepherd shifts his mantle's fold, 

 And wraps him closer from the cold ; 

 His dogs no merry circles wheel, 

 But, shivering, follow at his heel ; 

 A cowering glance they often cast, 

 As deeper moans the gathering blast. 



" My imps, though hardy, bold, and wild, 

 As best befits the mountain child, 

 Feel the sad influence of the hour, 

 And wail the daisy's vanished flower ; 

 Their summer gambols tell, and mourn, 

 And anxious ask Will spring return, 

 And birds and lambs again be gay, 

 And blossoms clothe the hawthorn spray ? 



" Yes, prattlers, yes. The daisy's flower 

 Again shall paint your summer bower ; 

 Again the hawthorn shall supply 

 The garlands you delight to tie ; 

 The lambs upon the lea shall bound, 

 The wild birds carol to the round ; 

 And while you frolic light as they, 

 Too short shall seem the summer day." 



On her rich roll of worthies, Scotland has but few names of whom 

 she has more reason to be proud than that of Walter Scott. If we 

 had even said not one, an objector might perhaps find the assertion 

 more difficult to disprove than he wots of. Nor has the star of his 

 marvellous power and influence for good set or been extinguished ; 

 it has only been clouded for a season by the intervention of exhala- 

 tions of the " earth, earthy " exhalations that the growth of a 

 healthier and holier taste is already dissipating, and the Wizard's 



