While he link'd them in Hymen's ban's, An' wish'd them ilka blessin'. Then to the loan they a' cam' out, Spent some time wi' their fykin', When for the road they were set right, An' just began a steerin', The broose wi' fury took the flight, An' splutterin' flew careerin'; Thus on they drave, contendin' keen, Which made spectators cheerie, Till Tam's horse stuml'd on a stane, An' he fell tapsalteerie I' the dirt that day. Behin', wi' birr, cam' Bauldy Bell, The bulk an' body cam' belyve, A barn, set roun' wi' furms an' planks, 1 The racer who first reaches the bridegroom's house wins the broose or race, and receives a bottle of rum or whisky, with which he returns in triumph to the approaching company; and on his arrival he drinks the bride and bridegroom's health: then all proceed, the winner riding in the van exhibiting the bottle. 2 The occurrence of this wedding was about sixty years ago. Such great companies and ostentatious displays on occasions of this kind were common in Clydesdale at that period. To keep up such doings at weddings, young men sometimes contributed one shilling or one shilling and sixpence each, and young women one shilling or a sixpence, to defray the expense. Such large riding weddings, and the custom of collecting to defray the expense, do not now (1840) exist. 1 Collections for the poor at marriages is an old custom in Lanarkshire and elsewhere, and is still (1840) continued in many parishes. The money is generally committed to the minister for distribution among poor persons not on the poor's-roll. It is sometimes given to the beadle for cleaning the church. Amang the stir kind feelin's were, Some bauk-heigh loup't in daffin'; Even runkl'd wives an' carles look'd gay, Fidg't, leugh, an' crack't their thumbs when they Through foursome reels gaed loupin'; An' whan they toom't their horns, loud cheers They gae at droll narrations and subsequently professor of divinity in the University of Glasgow, was a scion of an old family allied to the Baillies of Jerviswood, memorable in Scottish history. Her mother, also, was one of a race well known in "the north country," for she was a descendant of the Hunters of Hunterston, and was the sister of Drs. John and William Hunter, both re Conspicuous among the numerous poetic | Dr. James Baillie, the minister of that parish, nurselings whom "Caledonia stern and wild" nurtured during the last half of the eighteenth century was Miss Baillie-"the immortal Joanna," as Sir Walter Scott called her, the authoress of several successful dramas, and of various beautiful Scottish poems. Although for more than half her long life a resident in or near London, and familiar with its best society, she never bated her national prepos-nowned in the annals of science. Joanna sessions, nor lost the dialect of her native land. She was born in the manse of Bothwell, Lanarkshire, September 11, 1762. Her father, Baillie-a twin, the other child being stillborn-was the youngest of a family of three children. She spent her earliest years among |