Sae all that they culd mein or say, To brecking, abjecting Behald the state that man was in, And als how it he tynt throw sin, And lost the same for ay; Yet God his promise dois perform, Sent his Son of the Virgin born, Our ransome deir to pay. To that great God let us give glore, Quha be his grace did us restore, Not careing nor sparing Us quhen we wer all schent. SATIRE ON THE TOWN LADIES. Some wifis of the borowstoun In warld they wait not what to weir; On claithis they ware mony a croun; And all for newfangleness of geir. And of fine silk their furrit clokis, With hingan sleeves, like geil pokis; Nae preaching will gar them forbeir To weir all thing that sin provokis; And all for newfangleness of geir. Their wilicoats maun weel be hewit, Their woven hose of silk are shawin, With gartens of ane new maneir, And sometimes baith they will upbeir, To shaw their hose of black or brown; And all for newfangleness of geir. Their collars, carcats, and hause beidisWith velvet hats heigh on their heidis, Cordit with gold like ane younkeir. Braidit about with golden threidis; And all for newfangleness of geir. Their shoon of velvet, and their muilis- Nor wald their mothers in ane yeir. When they sae vainly waste their geir. Leave, burgess men, or all be lost, Whilk may gar all your bairnis bleir. She that may not want wine and roast, Is able for to waste some geir. Between them, and nobles of blude, Their camrock curchies are as deir, And they as costly in other geir. Of burgess wifis though I speak plain, As by their claithing may appeir, FLORENCE WILSON. BORN 1500 DIED 1547. FLORENCE WILSON, commonly known by his | the rudiments of his education in his native Latinized born on name of Florentius Volusenus, was the banks of the Lossie, in the vicinity place, and prosecuted his academical studies in the University of King's College, Aberdeen. of Elgin, about the year 1500. He received Repairing afterwards to England, his talents recommended him to the notice of Cardinal | the public school of Carpentras, a town in the Wolsey, who appointed him preceptor to his nephew, and he accompanied the youth to Paris, where he was sent for his education. On Wolsey's death in 1530 Wilson lost his pupil; but he soon after found another friend in the person of the learned Cardinal du Bellai. Intending to proceed to Rome with this prelate, he travelled with him as far as Avignon, where he was seized with an illness which caused him | to be left behind, and prevented his continuing his journey. On his recovery he applied to the celebrated Cardinal Sadolet, Bishop of Carpentras, a churchman styled by Erasmus "eximium hujus ætatis decus." department of the Vaucluse. How long he retained this situation is not known, but it was long enough to compose his celebrated work De Animi Tranquillitate Dialogus, Florentio Voluseno Scoto Auctore, which was published at Lyons in 1543. In this dialogue, which displays throughout a vast compass of learning and an intimate acquaintance with the Greek and Latin classics, there are interspersed several Latin poems of his own composition, which in elegance are little inferior to the productions of his contemporary and friend Buchanan. On the Continent the work was reprinted at Leyden and at the Hague, and at In a letter to his nephew Sadolet thus de- Edinburgh in 1571. A third edition was pubscribes the interview which took place. "Ilished in the latter city by Ruddiman in 1707, had," he writes, "by chance gone into my and a fourth in 1751, with a preface by Dr. John library when it was already night, and was Ward. Warton remarks of this work, "It is turning over some books very diligently, when addressed, as an apologue for the conduct of a my chamberlain announced that there was king, to James IV., is adorned with many some one wished to see me. I inquire, Who is pleasing incidents and adventures, and abounds he? A person in a gown, was the answer. Iwith genius and learning." Wilson continued ordered him to be admitted; he comes in. I to reside on the Continent, visiting many ask what he may want, that he should come to parts of Italy and France, until the year 1546, me at such an hour; for I was anxious to get when he felt a strong desire to see Scotland, quit of the man speedily, and return to my and accordingly set out on his return home, studies. Then he, having entered on his but was taken ill on the road, and died at introductory matter in very humble terms, Vienne in Dauphiny in 1547. spoke with such propriety, correctness, and modesty as to produce in me a desire to question him more particularly, and to be come more intimately acquainted with him. Therefore, shutting my book, I turned towards him, and asked from what country he came, what studies he had pursued, and what had brought him into these parts. He replied that he was a Scotchman. You come, then, said I, from the remotest region of the earth; where have you studied? (This question I asked because his discourse betokened genius and an elegant Latinity.) In my own country first, he answered, and afterwards at Paris. What do you seek here? I asked. I came hither, he replied, moved by a strong desire to see you, and from having heard at Avignon that you were in want of some one to undertake the charge of instructing your youth." The influence of the cardinal procured the desired situation, and Wilson was appointed teacher of the Greek and Latin languages in Wilson maintained a high character for genius and learning in the age in which he lived, and his countryman George Buchanan paid a tribute to him in an epigram which he composed upon his death: "Hic Musis, Volusene, jaces carissime ripam Ad Rhodani, terra quam procul a patria! Hoe meruit virtus tua, tellus quæ foret altrix Virtutum, ut cineres conderet illa tuos." Besides his treatise De Tranquillitate Animi, which has ever been much admired for the beauty of the philosophy as well as the elegance of the Latinity, Wilson wrote a volume of Latin poems, said to have been printed in London in 1612. In the Bannatyne Miscel lany there are published two of his letters, the one in English, the other in Latin-the former addressed to Thomas Cromwell, afterwards Lord Cromwell, earl of Essex. The following ode was translated from the Latin by Robert Blair, the gifted author of " Grave." The ALEXANDER SCOT. BORN 1502- DIED "Ye knaw, ill guyding genders mony gees, ALEXANDER SCOT, the prevailing amatory char- | in being obliged to sing without reward or acter of whose poems caused him to be called notice; and we find the name of Scot selected the Scottish Anacreon, though there are many by Alexander Montgomery to point a reflection points wanting to complete the resemblance to on neglected merit, in one of his sonnets adthe Teian bard, was a subject of James V., dressed to Robert Hudson: and also flourished during the reign of the unfortunate Mary, to whom he addressed "Ane New Yere Gift," when she came from France in 1562. Little is known of his personal history beyond what can be conjectured from his writings. It is supposed that he was born about the year 1502. In his address to Mary, which begins: "Welcome, illustrate lady, and our queen!" he designates himself her ". simple servant "Fresh, fulgent, flourist, fragrant flower, formose, This dull indyte, dulce, double, daisy dear, Yourself and I, Auld Scot and Robert Semple." In Allan Ramsay's Evergreen, and in the collections of Hailes, Pinkerton, and Sibbald, will be found many pleasing specimens of Scot's poetry. The Bannatyne MS. contains others which have never been printed; but, considering how often that valuable collection has been examined by competent judges, we may conclude that nothing has been neglected whose oblivious repose is worth disturbing. Allan Cunningham says: "Gay and light, and elegant beyond most poets of his time, Alexander Scot sang with much more sweetness than strength, and was more anxious after the smoothness of his numbers than the natural beauty of his sentiments. He flows smooth, but he seldom flows deep; he is refined and delicate, but has little vigour and no passion. Yet his verses are exceedingly pleasing; they are melodious, with meaning in their melody, and possess in no small degree that easy and gliding-away grace of expression of which the old minstrel vaunted THE FLOWER OF WOMANHEID. Thou well of virtue, flower of womanheid, Lady of lawty baith in word and deid, For evermore I sall you service mak: All bewtie, youth and womanheid ye had, |