[36] About 45 years ago, a poem appeared in a Kelso newspaper, wherein this person was respectfully noticed, as follows:—
"They brought the piper, Sandy Brown,
Frae Jedburgh to Lochmaben town;
Though whaisling sair and broken down
Auld Sandy seem'd,
His chanter for a pleasing sound
Was still esteem'd."
[37] An unskilful performer on the bagpipes, who attended the different fairs held in Northumberland.
VERSES WRITTEN FOR THE BURNS' CLUB,
Held at Mr. Wallace's, Nag's Head, Newcastle, Jan. 1817.
The rolling year at length brings forth
The day that gave our poet birth:
O Burns! to testify thy worth,
We're hither met—
Nae genius i' the South, or North
Can match thee yet.
Of ither's rhymes we have enow,
But sic as thine are rare and few—
For aye to nature thou wert true,
Thou bard divine!
Nae poet Scotia ever knew
Could sing sae fine.
With rapture, each returning Spring,
I'll follow thee, on Fancy's wing,
To where the lively linnets sing
In hawthorn shade;
Here oft thy muse, deep pondering,
Sweet sonnets made.
With thee I'll stray by streamlet's side,
And view the bonnie wimpling tide
O'er polish'd pebbles smoothly glide,
Wi' murm'ring sound,
While Nature, in her rustic pride,
Smiles all around.