labour'd once laboriously,
Although no riches I amass'd;
A menial I disdain'd to be,
An' keep my vow unto the last.
I have ceased to labour in the lan',
Since e'er I noticed to my wife,
That the idle and contented man
Endureth to the longest life.

'Tis my musket--loving wife, indeed--
In whom I faithfully believe,
She 's able still to earn my bread,
An' Duncan she will ne'er deceive;
I 'll have no lack of linens fair,
An' plenty clothes to serve my turn,
An' trust me that all worldly care
Now gives me not the least concern.

[124] The "Auld Town Guard" of Edinburgh, which existed before the
Police Acts came into operation, was composed principally of
Highlandmen, some of them old pensioners. Their rendezvous, or place of
resort, was in the vicinity of old St Giles's Church, where they might
generally be found smoking, snuffing, and speaking in the true Highland
vernacular. Archie Campbell, celebrated by Macintyre as "Captain
Campbell," was the last, and a favourable specimen of this class of
civic functionaries. He was a stout, tall man; and, dressed in his "knee
breeks and buckles, wi' the red-necked coat, and the cocked hat," he
considered himself of no ordinary importance. He had a most thorough
contempt for grammar, and looked upon the Lord Provost as the greatest
functionary in the world. He delighted to be called "the Provost's
right-hand man." Archie is still well remembered by many of the
inhabitants of Edinburgh, as he was quite a character in the city. In
dealing with a prisoner, Archie used to impress him with the idea that
he could do great things for him by merely speaking to "his honour the
Provost;" and when locking a prisoner up in the Tolbooth, he would say
sometimes--"There, my lad, I cannot do nothing more for you!" He took
care to give his friends from the Highlands a magnificent notion of his
great personal consequence, which, of course, they aggrandised when they
returned to the hills.

[125] A byeword for a regimental firelock.

[126] A favourite fowling-piece, alluded to in Bendourain, and
elsewhere.

JOHN MACODRUM.

Jan Macodrum, the Bard of Uist, was patronised by an eminent judge of
merit, Sir James Macdonald of Skye,--of whom, after a distinguished
career at Oxford, such expectations were formed, that on his premature
death at Rome he was lamented as the Marcellus of Scotland.

Macodrum's na