Minstrelsy of the Scottish border - National Library of Scotland

74
MINSTRELSY OF
follows, thebiographer of Burns proceeds thus : " I once
" in my early days heard (for itwas night, and I could not
" see) a traveller drowning ; not in the Annan itself, but
" in the Frith of Solway, close by the mouth of that river.
" The influx of the tide had unhorsed him, in the night,
" as he was passing the sands from Cumberland. The
'' west wind blew a tempest, and, accoi'ding to the com-
" mon expression, brought in the water three Jbot a-
" breast. The traveller got upon a standing net, a little
" way from the shore. There he lashed himself to the
" post, shouting for half an hour for assistance—till the
'' tide rose over his head ! In the darkness of night, and
" amid the pauses of the hui-ricane, his voice, heard at
" intervals, was exquisitely mournful. No one could go
" to his assistance—no one knew where he was—the
" sound seemed to proceed from the spirit of the waters.
" But morning rose—the tide had ebbed—and the poor
" traveller was found lashed to the pole of the net. and
" bleaching in the wind,"