Tune—'Where they go, where they go.'
For twenty years and more,
Bloody war,
Bloody war;
For twenty years and more,
Bloody war.
For twenty years and more
We heard the cannons roar
To swell the tide of gore,
Bloody war!
A tyrant on a throne
We have seen,
We have seen;
A tyrant on a throne
Who thought the earth his own,
But now is hardly known
To have been.
Who rung the loud alarm
To be free,
To be free?
Who rung the loud alarm
To be free?
'Twas Britain broke the charm,
And with her red right arm
She rung the loud alarm
To be free.
The battle van she led
Of the brave,
Of the brave;
The battle van she led
Of the brave;
The battle van she led,
Till tyranny lay dead,
And glory crown'd the head
Of the brave.
Give honour to the brave
Where they lie,
Where they lie;
Give honour to the brave
Where they lie;
Give honour to the brave,
And sacred be the grave,
On land or in the wave,
Where they lie.
WILLIAM BLAIR.
William Blair, author of "The Highland Maid," was, in the year 1800, born at Dunfermline. The son of respectable parents of the industrial class, he received an ordinary education at the burgh school. Apprenticed to the loom, he became known as a writer of verses; and having attracted the notice of an officer's lady, then resident in the place, he was at her expense sent to the grammar school. Having made some progress in classical learning, he was recommended for educational employment in Dollar Academy; but no suitable situation being vacant at the period of his application, he was led to despair of emanating from the humble condition of his birth. A settled melancholy was afterwards succeeded by symptoms of permanent imbecility. For a number of years Blair has been an inmate of the Dunfermline poor house.