38 NETHER LOCHABER. 



unspeakable, indescribable import into the mouth of honest 

 Sampson, -whom you can no more help laughing at, at times, than 

 you can loving him with all your heart always ? The matter, after 

 all, may seem a trifle, and it is a trifle, but such trifles are dear to 

 the lovers of literature. Were Boswell in the flesh subsequent to 

 the publication of Guy Mannering, and had his attention drawn 

 to such a matter, slight as it seems, what a delightful chapter of 

 gossip he could write about it, with fresh reminiscences of his long 

 and intimate intercourse with his " illustrious friend," for whom 

 till his dying day he cherished so much veneration and awe, ever- 

 more mingled with most pardonable pride that he knew him as no 

 one else knew him, and loved him as no one else loved him, or 

 perhaps could love him. 



We have just been reading our friend Professor Blackie's poem 

 on " Glencoe." The manner in which he " goes at " his subject, to 

 use a sporting phrase, the life, and vigour, and swing, and fervour 

 of the whole, is most refreshing in these days of poetical (save the 

 mark !) namby-pambyisms, and eminently characteristic of the 

 learned Professor when at his best. Here you have him, like a 

 knight of the Middle Ages, high in his stirrups, ^^ith lance in rest, 

 " DKaindeoin eo theireadh el" blazing on his shield, and who 

 shall dare to stop his fierce career against the perpetrators of the 

 foulest deed on record 1 Less polished and less artistic than 

 Aytoun's " Widow of Glencoe," it is, nevertheless, the better 

 poem, on such a subject, of the two. Its very ruggedness and stern 

 headlong force are its chief charm, they best beiit the theme. 

 Blackie is terribly in earnest ; with Aytoun you cannot help feeling 

 it was a mere matter of sentiment and no more. 



