Correct and sagacious, then came my Lord Hailes,
And weigh'd every letter in critical scales,

VII.

The stout Gothic yeditur, next on the roll,"
With his beard like a brush and as black as a coal;
And honest Greysteel that was true to the core,
Lent their hearts and their hands each to one volume
more.
One volume more, &c.

VIII.

Since by these single champions what wonders were
done,

What may not be achieved by our Thirty and One?
Law, Gospel, and Commerce, we count in our corps,
And the Trade and the Press join for one volume more.
One volume more, &c.

IX.

Ancient libels and contraband books, I assure ye,
We'll print as secure from Exchequer or Jury;
Then hear your Committee and let them count o'er
The Chiels they intend in their three volumes more.
Three volumes more, &c.

X.

They'll produce you King Jamie, the sapient and Sext,

But left out some brief words, which the prudish ab- And the Rob of Dumblane and her Bishops comenext;

hor,

And castrated Banny in one volume more.

One volume more, my friends, one volume more;
We'll restore Banny's manhood in one volume

more.

Ore tome miscellaneous they'll add to your store,
Resolving next year to print four volumes more.

Four volumes more, my friends, four volumes

more;

Pay down your subscriptions for four volumes

more.

V.

John Pinkerton next, and I'm truly concern'd
I can't call that worthy so candid as learn'd;
He rail'd at the plaid and blasphemed the claymore,
And set Scots by the ears in his one volume more.

One volume more, my friends, one volume more,
Celt and Goth shall be pleased with one volume

more.

VI.

As bitter as gall, and as sharp as a razor,
And feeding on herbs as a Nebuchadnezzar

This club was instituted in the year 1822, for the publica tion or reprint of rare and curious works connected with the history and antiquities of Scotland. It consisted, at first, of a very few members,-gradually extended to one hundred, at which number it has now made a final pause. They assume the name of the Bannatyne Club from George Bannatyne, of whom little is known beyond that prodigious effort which produced his present honours, and is, perhaps, one of the most singular instances of its kind which the literature of any country exhibits. His labours as an amanuensis were undertaken during the time of pestilence, in 1568. The dread of infection had induced him to retire into solitude, and under such circumstances he had the energy to form and exe

1 Sir Walter Scott was the first President of the Club, and Wrote these verses for the anniversary dinner of March, 1823. -See Life, vol. vii., p. 137.

2 In accordance with his own regimen, Mr. Ritson published a volume entitled, "An Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food as a Moral Duty. 1802."

of Pinkerton, Ritson, and Herd, &c. in the Introductory Remarks on Popular Poetry, ante, p. 537, et seq.

4 James Sibbald, editor of Scottish Poetry, &c. "The Yeditur," was the name given him by the late Lord Eldin, then Mr. John Clerk, advocate. The description of him here is very accurate.

5 David Herd, editor of Songs and Historical Ballads. 2 vols. He was called Greysteel by his intimates, from having

3 See an account of the Metrical Antiquarian Researches been long in unsuccessful quest of the romance of that name