not so clearly recognise. To remedy this state of
things, I wrote 'The Christian Politician' in a style as simple as the
subjects treated of in it would well admit of, giving it a
conversational cast, instead of systematic arrangement, that it might
be the less forbidding to those for whom it was principally intended.
Being published, however, at the time when, through my indisposition, I
could take no interest in it, it was sent forth in a somewhat more
costly shape than rightly suited the original design; and although
extensively introduced and well received, it was in society of a higher
order than that which it was its object chiefly to benefit.

"My latest publication is a volume of 'Poems and Songs,'[5] published by
Messrs Sutherland and Knox of Edinburgh. 'The Cottagers of Glendale,'
the 'Lay of Life,' and some others of the compositions in this volume,
were written during the period of my convalescence; the songs are, for
the greater part, the production of 'the days of other years.' Many of
the latter had been already sung in every district of the kingdom, but
had been much corrupted in the course of oral transmission. These
wanderers of the hill-harp are now secured in a permanent form."

To this autobiographical sketch it remains to be added, that Mr Riddell
is possessed of nearly all the qualities of a great master of the
Scottish lyre. He has viewed the national character where it is to be
seen in its most unsophisticated aspects, and in circumstances the most
favourable to its development. He has lived, too, among scenes the best
calculated to foster the poetic temperament. "He has got," wrote
Professor Wilson, "a poet's education: he has lived the greater part of
his days amidst pastoral scenes, and tended sheep among the green and
beautiful solitudes of nature." Sufficiently imaginative, he does not,
like his minstrel predecessor the Ettrick Shepherd, soar into the
regions of the supernatural, or roam among the scenes of the viewless
world. He sings of the mountain wilds and picturesque valleys of
Caledonia, and of the simple joys and habits of rural or pastoral life.
His style is essentially lyrical, and his songs are altogether true to
nature. Several of his songs, such as "Scotland Yet," "The Wild Glen sae
Green," "The Land of Gallant Hearts," and "The Crook and Plaid," will
find admirers while Scottish lyric poetry is read or sung.

In 1855, Mr Riddell executed a translation of the Gospel of Matthew