372 ikinos of tbe 1Rofc t IRifle, ant> 6un 



poets ; and I daresay my praise and observations, simple 

 as they must have been, even gave him encouragement, 

 since a few years afterwards he published, by subscrip- 

 tion, a very neat volume of poems, which, though not 

 of a high, flaming cast, did nevertheless express much 

 of the native manners of common country life, impressed 

 with the ingenuous simplicity of his own mind." 



The most popular, perhaps, of Andrew Scott's poems 

 was one entitled "Simon and Janet," which tells with 

 much spirit the story of a stirring incident wherein John 

 Younger played a part the memorable night of the 

 " False Alarm," when the war beacons blazed on every 

 Border fell and Scottish hill from Solway to the Firth 

 of Forth, and every man who could carry a musket 

 hurried to the muster-place. Did not "the Shirra" 

 himself gallop off that night from Abbotsford to the 

 trysting-spot ? 



John, albeit he hated and despised soldiering and all 

 its accessories, had joined the Volunteers at the time of 

 the great invasion panic of 1 803, as he frankly tells us, 

 not so much out of any feeling of loyalty or patriotism 

 as to save himself " from being drafted as a regular 

 militiaman." Probably a very large number of the 

 300,000 volunteers who so promptly responded to the 

 call to arms were actuated by similar motives, for the 

 thought of conscription was hateful to both Englishmen 

 and Scotsmen, and any man who could show that he 

 was an effective volunteer was exempt from the militia 

 ballot. This is how John Younger describes that 

 exciting scene in 1804: 



"On the 3 ist of January, about ten at night, I had 



