Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character

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Edmonston and Douglas, 1874 - Anecdotes - 387 pages
 

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Page 224 - Hesperus ! thou bringest all good things — Home to the weary, to the hungry cheer, To the young bird the parent's brooding wings, The welcome stall to the...
Page 23 - Coleridge and myself walked back to Stowey that evening, and his voice sounded high "Of Providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate, Fix'd fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute," as we passed through echoing grove, by fairy stream or waterfall, gleaming in the summer moonlight!
Page 235 - The night drave on wi' sangs and clatter; And ay the ale was growing better: The landlady and Tam grew gracious, Wi' favours, secret, sweet, and precious: The souter tauld his queerest stories; The landlord's laugh was ready chorus: The storm without might rair and rustle, Tam did na mind the storm a whistle. Care, mad to see a man sae happy, E'en drown'd himsel amang the nappy: As bees flee hame wi' lades o' treasure, The minutes wing'd their way wi' pleasure; Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious,...
Page 313 - Firm and erect the Caledonian stood, Old was his mutton, and his claret good; ' Let him drink port,' an English statesman cried — He drank the poison, and his spirit died.
Page 349 - What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.
Page 41 - They chant their artless notes in simple guise; They tune their hearts, by far the noblest aim : Perhaps ' Dundee's ' wild warbling measures rise, Or plaintive *• Martyrs...
Page 170 - He spake of love, such love as Spirits feel In worlds whose course is equable and pure; No fears to beat away — no strife to heal — The past unsighed for, and the future sure...
Page 233 - It requires," he used to say, " a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch Understanding. Their only idea of wit, or rather that inferior variety of this electric talent which prevails occasionally in the North, and which, under the name of WUT, is so infinitely distressing to people of good taste, is laughing immoderately at stated intervals.
Page 334 - Take back your bonny Mrs Behn ; and, if you will take my advice, put her in the fire, for I found it impossible to get through the very first novel. But is it not,' she said, ' a very odd thing that I, an old woman of eighty and upwards, sitting alone, feel myself ashamed to read a book which, sixty years ago, I have heard read aloud for the amusement of large circles, consisting of the first and most creditable society in London.
Page 109 - We are na fou, we're no that fou, But just a drappie in our ee ; The cock may craw, the day may daw, And aye we'll taste the barley bree.

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