Had seen her deck the wildwood tree,
And star with snowy gems the lea;
In loveliest colours paint the plain,
And sow the moor with purple grain;
By golden mead and mountain sheer,
Had view'd the Ettrick waving clear,
When shadowy flocks of purest snow
Seem'd grazing in a world below."

Glorious as was his academy, the genius of the poet was not precocious.
Forgetting everything he had learned at school, he spent his intervals
of toil in desultory amusements, or in pursuing his own shadow upon the
hills. As he grew older, he discovered the possession of a musical ear;
and saving five shillings of his earnings, he purchased an old violin,
upon which he learned to play his favourite tunes. He had now attained
his fourteenth year; and in the constant hope of improving his
circumstances, had served twelve masters.

The life of a cow-herd affords limited opportunities for mental
improvement. And the early servitude of the Ettrick Shepherd was spent
in excessive toil, which his propensities to fun and frolic served just
to render tolerable. When he reached the respectable and comparatively
easy position of a shepherd, he began to think of teaching himself to
read. From Mrs Laidlaw, the wife of the farmer at Willinslee, on which
he served, he was privileged with the loan of two works, of which the
reputation had been familiar to him from childhood. These were Henry the
Minstrel's "Life and Adventures of Sir William Wallace," and the "Gentle
Shepherd" of Allan Ramsay. On these the future poet with much difficulty
learned to read, in his eighteenth year. He afterwards read a number of
theological works, from his employer's collection of books; and among