when music was so highly popular in England that all ranks of society cultivated the art of singing, and when a gentleman's education was considered incomplete if he had not been taught music, and when in many public schools, like that of Winchester, part-singing was a part of the regular and compulsory course of study-a young Scotch boy was brought to England, and there educated in all the accomplishments of the more civilised country. This boy, then aged eleven years, was

James Stuart, son of Robert III. King of Scotland. He was on his way to France to be educated, when the vessel in which he sailed was taken by an English squadron, in defiance, it was alleged, of a truce then subsisting between England and Scotland. The young prince was conveyed a prisoner to the Tower of London, where he was held captive for two years. At the end of that time he was consigned to Windsor Castle, where he was educated in a manner befitting his high rank, and where he remained, with more or less of personal freedom, until he attained the age of thirty. He manifested a strong taste for music and poetry, composed many songs, which are now either lost, or, if extant, not known to be his, and wrote an English poem of great merit, in imitation of the style of Chaucer, then the prevailing favourite. This poem, entitled "The King's Quair," or "The King's Book," celebrates his love for the beautiful Lady Jane, or Joanna Beaufort, an English lady, daughter of the Duke of Somerset, of whose charms he became enamoured, on seeing her from his turret-window, walking among her maidens in the garden of Windsor Castle. The prince afterwards married this lady, and being restored to his own country, ascended the throne under the title of James I. He introduced into Scotland the arts which he had cultivated with such success in England, especially music and poetry. The

contemporary historians Fordun and Boece make honourable mention of him. Fordun says "he excelled in music, and not only in the vocal kind, but also in instrumental, which is the perfection of the art; in tabor and choir, in psalter and organ. Nature, apparently having calculated upon his acquiring something more than the ordinary qualifications of men, had implanted in him a force and power of divine genius above all human estimation; and this genius shewed itself most particularly in music. His touch upon the harp produced a sound so utterly sweet, and so truly delightful to the hearers, that he seemed to be born a second Orpheus, or, as it were, the prince and prelate of all harpers."

Ballenden, Arch-Dean of Murray, 'in his translation of Boece's History, is equally emphatic: "He was well learnt to fecht with the sword, to just, to tournay, to warsel, to sing and dance; he was an expert mediciner; richt crafty in playing baith of lute and harp, and sindry other instruments of musik; he was expert in gramar, oratory, and poetry, and made so flowand and sententious verses, appeared weel he was ane naturall and borne Poete."

But the most remarkable testimony to his merits and to the influence which he exercised over the musical taste of his countrymen is afforded in the Pensieri Diversi of Alessandro Tassoni, an Italian writer, who in the twenty-third chapter of his tenth book thus distinguishes the king, "Noi ancora possiamo connumerar tra nostri, Jacopo Rè di Scozia, che non pur cose sacre compose in canto, ma trova da se stesso una nuova musica, lamentevole e mestà, differente da tutte l'altre. Nel che poi è stato imitato da Carlo Gesualdo Principe di Venosa, che in questa nostra età ha illustrato anch' egli la musica con nuove mirabili invenzioni." "We may reckon among us moderns

James King of Scotland, who not only composed many pieces. of sacred music, but also of himself invented a new kind of music, plaintive and melancholy, different from all others, in which he has been imitated by Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, who, in our age, has improved music with many new and admirable inventions."

Among the list of song-tunes popular in Scotland at and after the time of James, we find that the names preserved to us shew an English origin. In a humorous poem entitled "Cockelby's Sow," of which the earliest copy is a мs. dated in 1568, but from internal and other evidence, supposed to have been composed at least a century earlier, occurs the following passage: "And his cousin Copyn Cull

Led the dance and began,

Play us Jolly Lemmane.

Sum trottit Tras and Trewass,

Sum balterit The Bass,

Sum Perdolly, sum Trolly lolly,

Sum Cok craw thou all day

Twysbank and Terway,

Sum Lincolne sum Lindsay,

Sum Joly Lemman, dawis it not day,

Sum Be yon woodsyd singis,

Sum Lait lait in evinnynis,

Sum Joly Martene with a mok,

Sum Lulalowe lute cok,

Sum movit Most mak revell,

Sum Symon sonis of Quhynfell,

Sum Maister Peir de cougate.
Sum Our fate, sum Orliance,
Sum Rusty Bully with a bek."

Many of these songs are either lost altogether, or are extant under other names and known to be English. In the "Complaint of Scotland," published in 1549, there is still more remarkable evidence of the English origin and character of the songs then popular in Scotland. The author representing himself as weary with study, "walks out into the wholesome fields, to hear the songs of the shepherds," and gives a list of thirty

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seven of these compositions. "Now I will rehearse," says he, some of the sweet songs that I heard among them." Among others, he mentions, "Pastime with gude company," a song the composition of King Henry VIII.; "Still under the levis grene," and "Coll thou me the rashis grene," two songs acknowledged by later Scottish writers to be English; "King William's note," supposed to be the song sung by Nicholas in Chaucer's "Miller's Tale:"

"And after that he sang the King's note,
Full often bless'd was his mery throat."

Trolly, lolly," of the English origin of which there needs no other proof than the title; "The frog came to the mill-door," better known to English readers at the present time under the title of "The Frog he would a-wooing go;" "The Percy and the Montgomery met," or the English ballad of " Otterbourne," printed in "Percy's Reliques," and six songs entitled, "Alone I weep in great distress," "Right sorely musing in my mind," "O mine heart, this is my song," "Grievous is my sorrow," "Alas, that seeming sweet face," and "In one mirthful morrow." These songs have been lost, but their music has been fortunately preserved in the work of Andro Hart, printed in Aberdeen about the commencement of the seventeenth century, and called, "Ane Compendious Book of Godly and Spiritual Songs, collectit out of sundrie parts of the Scripture, with sundrie of other Ballats, chainged out of Profaine Songs, for the avoiding of Sinne and Harlotrie." In this work the tunes appear under their old titles, as given above, but with the "godly words" of the strange religious parodies which were made upon them. These six tunes, as well as all the other melodies in Hart's book, are acknowledged by all investigators to be English, and to have none of the marks by which songs in the Scottish manner are now distinguished. a 2

Thus it would appear that the intercourse between England and Scotland, or the identical origin of the two nations,

or the similarity of literary and musical taste and development at this time were such, that they possessed many songs in common, as they do now. It is clear, moreover, from these and other circumstances already mentioned, that the influence exercised upon Scottish song and music by James I. was strong and lasting. He is recognised as the father of Scottish melody, and popular tradition ascribes to him the composition of many beautiful and well-known airs. Circumstances at a later period tended to develop the musical taste of the people, and to make it somewhat different from that of England, from which it sprung. Constant intercourse with France was probably not without some effect; and the career of James V., himself a composer and song-writer, as well as that of the beautiful, accomplished, and unfortunate Mary, tended to improve the musical taste of the country. Mary's two secretaries, Chatelar, a Frenchman, and Rizzio, an Italian, were both admitted to her favour and intimacy in consequence of their musical skill; and both, it is to be presumed, encouraged a love of music among the frequenters of the court, and influenced in a greater or less degree the musical taste of the people. To Chatelar are ascribed many tender melodies now considered Scottish, which are obviously of French parentage; and to Rizzio Scotland is probably indebted for more music than will ever be discovered to have come from Italy. Be this as it may, music flourished in this little known and but half-civilised portion of the empire when it began to decay elsewhere; and not even the Reformation, which in England had the effect of consigning to oblivion or to popular hatred many ancient songs and tunes, could damp in Scotland the musical ardour of the people.