As to the second,—Cymru (l. 1)=Wales.
III.—SCOTLAND
[CXXVIII]
The Tea-Table Miscellany: a Collection of Choice Songs (Edinburgh, 4 vols., 1724–7).
[CXXIX]
This ‘matchless wail’ (as Scott called it) was written in 1756. For some time it was thought to be a genuine relic of the past. Burns was one of the first to insist that it was a modern composition. The ‘Forest’ is, of course, Ettrick Forest, that romantic district comprising most of Selkirkshire and the neighbouring parts of Peebles and Edinburgh shires. A few straggling thorns and solitary birches are the sole remaining traces of this ‘fein foreste,’ once the favourite hunting-ground of the Scottish kings.
bandsters. Binders of sheaves.
bogle. ‘Hide and seek.’
buchts. Pen in which ewes are enclosed at milking-time.
daffin’. Making merry.
dool. Sorrow.
dowie. Doleful.
fleechin’. Coaxing.
gabbin’. Talking pertly.
har’st. Harvest.
ilk, ilka. Every.
liltin’. Singing.
loanin’. Lane.
laighlin. Milking pail.
lyart. Hoary-headed.
mair. More.
runkled. Wrinkled.
swankies. Lively young fellows.
wae. Sad.
wede. Weeded.
[CXXX]
Written on the Marquess of Huntley’s departure for Holland, with the English forces, under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby, in 1799.