"Wide o' the mark, as if to scar us,
The bullets ripp'd the swaird like harrows;
And fright'ning a' the craws and sparrows
About the place,
Ramrods were fleeing thick as arrows
At Chevy Chace."
After the first publication of the "Siller Gun," Mr. Mayne continued to write poetry, but with that careful fastidiousness, in which quality rather than quantity was the chief object of solicitude. These productions generally appeared in "Ruddiman's Magazine," a weekly miscellany, and it was there that his "Halloween," which was to be honoured by such an illustrious successor, first saw the light. He also exchanged verses in print with his fellow-townsman, Telford, afterwards so distinguished among our Scottish engineers. Among Mayne's few and short poetical productions of this period, may be mentioned his beautiful song of "Logan Water," which first appeared about the year 1783. The tune of "Logan Water," one of our most simple and touching old national melodies, for which the verses were composed, and especially the intrinsic merits of the verses themselves, made the song such a universal favourite, that after taking complete hold of Scotland, it was published with the music in England, and established as one of the choice performances of Vauxhall. Burns, also, who mistook it for one of our old Scottish songs, as it was published anonymously, produced an imitation, under the same title, which scarcely equals the original. In simplicity, in tenderness, and classic elegance, we would match the " Logan Water" of Mayne even with the "Fountain of Bandusia" of Horace.
The other chief poetical production of Mr. Mayne, next to the "Siller Gun" in point of extent, was " Glasgow," a descriptive poem, which was published with illustrative notes in 1803. It is a work of considerable merit, and all the more worthy of attention, that it describes a state of men and things that has utterly passed away. Who would recognize in the Glasgow of that day the gorgeous Tyre of the west, whose merchants are princes, and whose population is numbered by myriads? In the same year that his "Glasgow" appeared, he also published " English, Scots, and Irishmen," a patriotic address to the inhabitants of the three kingdoms.
Although John Mayne loved his country with all the patriotic ardour of a Scotchman, and celebrated its people and its scenery as few Scotchmen could do, yet, like many of his countrymen, he was doomed, during the greater part of his life, to contemplate it at a distance, and to speak of it to strangers. As a printer, his occupation was chiefly with the Messrs. Foulis, of the University Press, Glasgow, under whom he entered into an engagement that continued from 1782 to 1787. He visited London, probably for the first time, in 1785; and, having been attracted by the facilities that presented themselves there of permanent and profitable occupation, he moved thither in 1787, when his engagement in Glasgow had expired, and, during the rest of his long life, never happened to revisit the land of his nativity. It is well that Scottish patriotism, instead of being impaired, is so often enhanced by the enchantment of distance. In London he was singularly fortunate; for after the usual amount of enterprise and perseverance in literature, to which all his hopes and energies were devoted, he became printer, editor, and joint proprietor of the "Star" evening paper. Under his excellent management, the journal was a thriving
