with critical observations and biographical notices, by Robert Burns

157
So there such a race was,
As ne'er in that place was,
And as Httle chase was at a', man
Frae ither they 'run'
Without touk o' drum ;
They did not make use of a pa', man.
And we ran, and they ran, and they ran, and
zve ran, and roe ran, and they ran awd, man.^
* This battle has also been celebrated in a sort of dialogue,
printed in Ritson's Collection of Scotish Songs, between " Will
Lick-ladle and Tom Clean-cogue, twa Shepherds wha were feed-
ing their flocks on the Ochil-hills on the day the battle of SherifF-
Muir was fought." The mode of narration is well chosen, but
the poem has little other merit, except as being a circumstantial
and a sort of gazette account of the affair.
So fine a subject could not escape the Muse which immor-
talized the fight of Bannockburn, and in the accompanying
stanzas we have additional proof of the ardent and inexhaustible
mind of Burns, which when roused in the cause of Patriotism,
could invest the rudest materials with tlie riches of its own
genius. Most imitations are only foils to the original ; but here,
the Model is like a tree in the bare poverty of winter, and the
Copy is the same tree warmed with the life and clothed in the
verdure of spring. This is one among innumerable instances, in
which he has displayed the versatility of his powers in new-mo-
delling the ancient ballads of his country.
" Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit."
Ed,