_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_
ROMANCES
JOHN BURNET OF BARNS
A LOST LADY OF OLD YEARS
THE HALF-HEARTED
PRESTER JOHN
SALUTE TO ADVENTURERS
THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS
THE POWER-HOUSE
GREENMANTLE
SHORT STORIES
GREY WEATHER
THE WATCHER BY THE THRESHOLD
THE MOON ENDURETH
ESSAYS
SCHOLAR-GIPSIES
SOME EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BYWAYS
POLITICS AND TRAVEL
THE AFRICAN COLONY
A LODGE IN THE WILDERNESS
THE TAXATION OF FOREIGN INCOME
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
A HISTORY OF BRASENOSE COLLEGE
SIR WALTER RALEIGH
THE MARQUIS OF MONTROSE
ANDREW JAMESON, LORD ARDWALL
A HISTORY OF THE WAR (in course of publication).
POEMS
SCOTS AND ENGLISH
POEMS
SCOTS AND ENGLISH
BY
JOHN BUCHAN
_Dulces ... reminiscitur Argos_
—VIRGIL
T. C. & E. C. JACK, LIMITED
LONDON AND EDINBURGH
1917
* * * * *
_Printed in Great Britain
by Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh_
* * * * *
TO MY BROTHER
ALASTAIR BUCHAN
LIEUTENANT, ROYAL SCOTS FUSILIERS
WHO FELL AT ARRAS
ON EASTER MONDAY 1917
UNDER HIS COUNTRY’S
TRIUMPHING FLAG
Since there are many variants of our northern speech, it seems
fitting to say that the Scots pieces in this little collection are
written in the vernacular which is spoken in the hill country of the
Lowlands, from the Cheviots to Galloway. Scots has never been to me a
book-tongue; I could always speak it more easily than I could write it;
and I dare to hope that the faults of my verses, great as they are, are
not those of an antiquarian exercise.
J. B.
CONTENTS
BOOK I.—SCOTS
PAGE
MIDIAN’S EVIL DAY—Dear Reverend Sir,—I tak my pen 13
THE HERD OF FARAWA—Losh, man! Did ever mortal see 21
THE ETERNAL FEMININE—When I was a freckled bit bairn 30
THE SOUTH COUNTRIE—I never likit the Kingdom o’ Fife— 32
THE SHORTER CATECHISM—When I was young and herdit sheep 34
THEOCRITUS IN SCOTS
THE KIRN—’Twas last back-end 36
THE FISHERS—’Tis puirtith sooples 44
INTER ARMA
SWEET ARGOS—When the Almichty took His hand 48
ON LEAVE—I had auchteen months o’ the war 55
THE KIRK BELL—When oor lads gaed ower the tap 59
HOME THOUGHTS FROM ABROAD—Aifter the war, says the papers 62
FRAGMENT OF AN ODE—Ye’ll a’ hae heard tell 65
THE GREAT ONES—Ae morn aside the road frae Bray 67
FISHER JAMIE—Puir Jamie’s killed 69