“MY AIN COUNTREE.”
This hymn was written by Miss Mary Augusta Lee one Sabbath day in 1860 at Bowmount, Croton Falls, N.Y., and first published in the New York Observer, Dec, 1861. The authoress had been reading the story of John Macduff who, with his wife, left Scotland for the United States, and accumulated property by toil and thrift in the great West. In her leisure after the necessity for hard work was past, the Scotch woman grew homesick and pined for her “ain countree.” Her husband, at her request, came east and settled with her in sight of the Atlantic where she could see the waters that washed the Scotland shore. But she still pined, and finally to save her life, John Macduff took her back to the heather hills of the mother-land, where she soon recovered her health and spirits.
I am far from my hame an' I'm weary aften whiles
For the langed-for hame-bringing an' my Father's welcome smiles.
I'll ne'er be fu' content until mine eyes do see
The shinin' gates o' heaven an' mine ain countree.
The airt' is flecked wi' flowers mony-tinted, frish an' gay,
The birdies warble blithely, for my Father made them sae,
But these sights an' these soun's will naething be to me
When I hear the angels singin' in my ain countree.
Miss Lee was born in Croton Falls in 1838, and was of Scotch descent, and cared for by her grandfather and a Scotch nurse, her mother dying in her infancy. In 1870 she became the wife of a Mr. Demarest, and her married life was spent in Passaic, N.J., until their removal to Pasadena, Cal., in hope of restoring her failing health. She died at Los Angeles, Jan. 8, 1888.