Preface

ar song. fee thomson's colle of scottish airs he performed a fun similar to that which he had had in the “museum”; and his poetical activity during the last eight or nine years of his life was chiefly devoted to these two publications. in spite of the fact that he was stantly in severe financial straits, he refused to accept any repense for this work, preferring tard it as a patriotic service. and it was, indeed, a patriotic service of no small magnitude. by birth and temperament he was singularly fitted for the task, and this fitness is proved by the uent to which his produs were accepted by his trymen, and have passed into the life and feeling of his race.