Yon hawthorn bower beside the burn I never shall forget;
Ah! there my dear departed maid and I in rapture met:
What tender aspirations we breathed for other's weal!
How glow'd our hearts with sympathy which none but lovers feel!
And when above our hapless Prince the milk-white flag was flung,
While hamlet, mountain, rock, and glen with martial music rung,
We parted there; from her embrace myself I wildly tore;
Our hopes were vain—I came again, but found her never more.
Oh! thank you for your gentleness—now stay one minute still;
There is a lone and quiet spot on yonder rising hill;
I mark it, and the sight revives emotions strong and deep—
There, lowly laid, my parents in the dust together sleep.
And must I in a land afar from home and kindred lie?
Forbid it, heaven! and hear my prayer—'tis better now to die!
My limbs grow faint—I fain would rest—my eyes are darkening o'er;
Slow flags my breath; now, this is death—adieu, for evermore!
WILLIAM CAMERON.
William Cameron was born on the 3d December 1801, in the parish of Dunipace, and county of Stirling. His father was employed successively in woollen factories at Dumfries, Dalmellington, and Dunipace. He subsequently became proprietor of woollen manufactories at Slamannan, Stirlingshire, and at Blackburn and Torphichen, in the county of Linlithgow. While receiving an education with a view to the ministry, the death of his father in 1819 was attended with an alteration in his prospects, and he was induced to accept the appointment of schoolmaster at the village of Armadale, parish of Bathgate. In 1836 he resigned this situation, and removed to Glasgow, where he has since prosperously engaged in mercantile concerns. Of the various lyrics which have proceeded from his pen, "Jessie o' the Dell" is an especial favourite. The greater number of his songs, arranged with music, appear in the "Lyric Gems of Scotland," a respectable collection of minstrelsy published in Glasgow.
SWEET JESSIE O' THE DELL.
O bright the beaming queen o' night
Shines in yon flow'ry vale,
And softly sheds her silver light
O'er mountain, path, and dale.
Short is the way, when light 's the heart
That 's bound in love's soft spell;
Sae I 'll awa' to Armadale,
To Jessie o' the Dell,
To Jessie o' the Dell,
Sweet Jessie o' the Dell;
The bonnie lass o' Armadale,
Sweet Jessie o' the Dell.
We 've pu'd the primrose on the braes
Beside my Jessie's cot,
We 've gather'd nuts, we 've gather'd slaes,
In that sweet rural spot.
The wee short hours danced merrily,
Like lambkins on the fell;
As if they join'd in joy wi' me
And Jessie o' the Dell.
There's nane to me wi' her can vie,
I 'll love her till I dee;
For she's sae sweet and bonnie aye,
And kind as kind can be.
This night in mutual kind embrace,
Oh, wha our joys may tell;
Then I 'll awa' to Armadale,
To Jessie o' the Dell.