ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 233 



the bread of the Church of England, drawing among other 

 pensions, one of £5 from the Dean of Durham. There 

 his will may still be seen, witnessed by Michael Sanderson, 

 Mayor of Berwick when James VI. granted the charter 

 under which this town is still governed. 



My interest in the Berwick period of Melville's career 

 has recently been whetted by the perusal of 

 Melville's a little known volume of Sonnets preserved 

 Sonnets. in MS. at the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. 



These sonnets a])pear to have been all writ- 

 ten during his banishment, and belong to the years 

 1610-1611, immediately preceding his second marriage. 

 Penned in Melville's small neat hand, this quar-to came into 

 the hands of the Advocates in May, 1822. Its donor 

 was a Border clergyman, the Rev. William Blackie. 

 Sprung from a well-known family of Glasgow publishers, 

 he grew up in a literary atmospher-e and, after studying 

 for the Church, was presented to the living of Yetholm, 

 thanks to Wauchope of Niddrie, in whose family he 

 had served as tutor and chaplain. Blackie was a lover 

 of good books, and, for a country cler-g3'man, possessed an 

 unusually lar-ge and choice library, Melville's Sonnets 

 being one of its gems. 



In this, the quincentenary year of St. Andrew's 

 University, Melville's Sonnet to Sedan and St. Andros, 

 redolent of his uncle's banishment to Fr^ance, may be read 

 with interest : — 



"Sincerly long Christ's treuth thou hes profest, 



Oft hes thow lodged his exyled men, 

 Sweit Sedan. Now thy seid hes weill increst, 



Thy talent thoa hes multiplied to ten. 



SainctAndros, sorrowfiill may be thy song, 

 For smoring seed and talent under ground, 



Therefore is Sedan vantag't be thy wrong, 

 Whom flemed^'^ Melvin hes a mother found. 



^^ Banished. 



