the romantic scenery of Bothwell, and in all | Baee," which had been previously printed for the freedom of Scottish country life. She was private circulation, also some fugitive verses a fresh out-door maiden, scrambling over burns never before published. and heather, loving to listen to all nature's sounds, and to watch all nature's sights. She made verses before she learned to read, which was not till her eleventh year. Then her favourite studies were among the story-tellers and poets; and her favourite thoughts as she grew up, were of the workings of the human heart. She took every opportunity of arranging among her young companions theatrical performances, in which her power of sustaining characters was remarkable, and she frequently wrote the dialogue herself. Notwithstanding the decided tendency of her mind, Miss Baillie did not become an author till at a later period than is usual with those who are subject to the strong impulse of genius. In 1778 her father died, and in 1784 his widow, with her two daughters, having lived for some years near Hamilton, proceeded to London to reside with her son, who had entered upon his medical career, and who, upon the death of his uncle Dr. William Hunter, had come into possession of the house which the latter had built and inhabited. It was in this abode that Joanna Baillie, at the age of twenty-eight, first resolved upon publishing, and that anonymously, a volume of poems, which did not attract much attention. They evinced talent, but not the power she afterwards manifested. Her first volume of dramas was published also anonymously in 1798; her last appeared nearly forty years later. The altered taste of the age was evident in the different reception accorded to them. "Basil" and its companions ran through five editions in eight years, while the plays published in 1836, though equally full of real dramatic power, created none of the enthusiasm of former days in a reading public, which had then turned to other fashions of literature for amusement. Besides her numerous dramas, pervaded by a pure and energetic strain of poetry, Miss Baillie was the author of poems as well as numerous songs, some of which are among the most popular Scottish lyrics of the present day. A complete edition of her works, with the exception of several minor pieces, was issued in London soon after her death. In this large volume is included a poem entitled "Ahalya After the marriage of her brother, Dr. William Baillie, with Miss Denman, sister of the Lord Chief-justice Denman, Joanna, with her mother and sister, passed some years at Colchester, but subsequently settled at Hampstead, near London. Her mother died in 1806, and her sole companion during the remainder of her life was her sister, whose character, virtues, and claims upon the affection of the poetess are beautifully commemorated by her in an address on her birthday, when both were in "the sere, the yellow leaf." We know of nothing more delightful in domestic poetry than these lines addressed to her faithful companion-the quaint, clever old lady, whose warm heart, shrewd sense of humour, and rich mines of legendary lore and national anecdote, helped in no small degree to fascinate the favoured guests at that old unpretending brick house, standing on the summit of the steep hill which carries the visitor to the breezy table-land of Hampstead Heath. At that house Scott, who made the acquaintance of its gifted occupant in 1806, was a frequent guest, and there, too, at times came Campbell, Rogers, Crabbe, Lord Jeffrey, Miss Aikin, Byron's wife and daughter Ada, and many others eminent in art or literature. The Great Unknown found in her a congenial spirit, and, as time proved, an enduring friend. His letters to her are well known to be among the most charming he ever wrote. Joanna Baillie was under the middle size, but not diminutive, and her form was slender. Her countenance indicated high talent, worth, and decision, and her life was characterized by the purest morality. Her principles were sustained by a strong and abiding sense of religion; while her great genius, and the engrossing pursuits of composition, never interfered with her active benevolence or the daily duties of life. This beautiful character passed away to her heavenly home, February 23, 1851. Her sister Agnes survived her, being upwards of a hundred years old when she died. In the memoirs of Miss Aikin, written when she was far advanced down the vale of life, is to be found this generous and pleasing tribute to the memory of her friend Joanna Baillie:"It has been my privilege," she says, "to have had more or less personal acquaintance | gifted woman, who, after attaining her ninetieth with almost every literary woman of celebrity year, carried with her to the grave the love, who adorned English society from the latter the reverence, the regrets of all who had ever years of the last century nearly to the present enjoyed the privilege of her society." time, and there was scarcely one of the number in whose society I did not find much to interest me; but of all these, excepting of course Mrs. Barbauld from the comparison, Joanna Baillie made by far the deepest impression upon me. Her genius was surpassing, her character the most endearing and exalted. . . She was the only person I have ever known towards whom fifty years of close acquaintance, while they continually deepened my affection, wore away nothing of my reverence. So little was she fitted or disposed for intellectual display, that it was seldom that her genius shone out with its full lustre in conversation; but I have seen her powerful eye kindle with all a poet's fire, while her language rose for a few moments to the height of some 'great argument.' Her deep knowledge of the human heart also would at times break loose from the habitual cautiousness, and I have then thought that if she was not the most candid and benevolent, she would be one of the most formidable of observers. Nothing escaped her, and there was much humour in her quiet touches. . . No one would ever have taken her for a married woman. An innocent and maiden grace still hovered over her to the end of her old age. It was one of her peculiar charms, and often brought to my mind the line addressed to the vowed Isabella in 'Measure for Measure,' 'I hold you for a thing enskied and saintly.' If there were ever human creature 'pure in the last recesses of the soul,' it was surely this meek, this pious, this noble-minded, and nobly- | ing selections. In William Howitt's Homes of the Poets. he remarks: "Joanna Baillie-a name never pronounced by Scot or Briton in any part of the empire but with the veneration due to the truest genius, and the affection which is the birthright of the truest specimens of womanhood." Sir Walter Scott said, "If you wish to speak of a real poet, Joanna Baillie is now the highest genius of our country." Washington Irving, who enjoyed the privilege of an intimate acquaintance with the "Lady Bountiful" of Hampstead and its neighbourhood, described her to the writer as "the most gifted of the tuneful sisterhood of Scotland;" and Mrs. Sigourney, who visited her in 1840, said: "It was both a pleasure and a privilege to see Miss Joanna Baillie at her residence in Hampstead. On my arrival she had just returned from a long walk to visit the poor, and though past the age of seventy-six, and the day chill and windy, she seemed unfatigued, and even invigorated by the exercise. . . . Miss Baillie is well known to be a native of Scotland, and sister to the late celebrated physician of that name, whose monument is in Westminster Abbey. Whether it was the frankness of her nation touching the chords of sympathy, I know not, but it was painful to bid her farewell. The sublimity of her poetry is felt on both sides of the Atlantic: yet there is no sweeter emanation of her genius than a recent birthday tribute to her beloved sister Agnes." These beautiful lines appear among the follow SIR MAURICE. Sir Maurice was a wealthy lord, Now all his armed vassals wait, Above the spearmen's lengthen'd file And looks of woe, and looks of cheer, On many a warlike face appear, |