The birks on Yarrow now deplore,
Thy mournful muse has left the shore;
Near what bright burn, or chrystal spring,
Did you your winsome whistle hing?
The Muse shall there, wi' wat'ry e'e,
Gie the dank swaird a tear for thee;
And Yarrow's genius, dowy dame!
Shall there forget her blood-stain'd stream,
On thy sad grave to seek repose,
"Wha mourn 'd her fate, condol'd her woes."
Mr Hamilton of Bangour is sometimes mistaken for and identified with another poet of the same name, William Hamilton of Gilbertfield in Lanarkshire, a lieutenant in the navy, who was the friend and correspondent of Allan Ramsay, and the modernizer of Blind Harry's poem of Wallace. The compositions of this gentleman display much beauty, simplicity, and sweetness; but he is neither so well known, nor entitled to be so, as the "Bard of Yarrow."
Mr Hamilton's private virtues were no less eminent than his poetical abilities. His piety, though fervent, was of that quiet and subdued cast that "does good by stealth, and blushes to find it fame." His manners were accomplished indeed so much so, as to earn for him the title of "the elegant and amiable William Hamilton of Bangour."[1]
HART, Andrew, deserves a place in this record, as one of the most distinguished of our early typographers. He flourished in the reign of James VI. Previous to 1600, he was in the habit of importing books from abroad; he was at this time exclusively a bookseller. From a mere bookseller he seems to have gradually become a publisher: several books were printed in Holland about the years 1600 and 1601, "at his expense." Finally, he added the business of printing to his other dealings. The productions of his press specify that his shop was in the High Street of Edinburgh, on the north side, opposite the cross; being, by a strange chance, the identical spot, from which Mr Archibald Constable, two hundred years after, issued so many noble efforts of Scottish genius. Hart's edition of the Bible, 1610, has always been admired for its fine typography. He also published a well-known edition of Barbour's Bruce. In addition to all other claims upon our praise, Hart was a worthy man. He died in a good old age, December, 1621, as we learn from a notice in Boyd of Trochrig's Obituary, quoted below.[2]
HENRY, the minstrel, more commonly styled Blind Harry, was a wandering poet of the fifteenth century, who wrote a well-known narrative of the life of Sir William Wallace.
The character of a wandering bard or minstrel was in early ages highly valued and honoured, although at a late period it fell into discredit. Henry the Minstrel, or Blind Harry, had not the fortune to live during the sunshine of his profession ; for in the Scottish laws of his own time, we find bards classed with "vagabondis, fuilis, and sic like idill peopill;" but the misfortune of his blindness, and the unquestionable excellence of his talents, would in all probability secure to him a degree of respect and attention which was not then generally bestowed on individuals of his class. Indeed, we learn from Major, that the most exalted in the land countenanced the minstrel, and that he recited his
- ↑ A manuscript, containing many poems by Hamilton which never saw the light, was in the possession of the late George Chalmers, Esq. author of "Caledonia." A list of them is given in the transactions of the Antiquarian Society of Scotland, vol. iii., where a portrait of Mr Hamilton has also been given.
- ↑ Le moy de Dec. 1621, mourut a Edin. le ban homme, Andrew Hart, impremeur et libraire; decide en bonne veillesse; homme de bieri et notre ancien amy.
