HIGHLAND DANCES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2004, 21 July 1892, Page 37

HIGHLAND DANCES.

[" A. It." writes :— I know there is a large number of your subscribers ardent lovers of Celtic music and dancing. Please give the enclosed a space in your poet's column, you will see that it was written by the present Dr M'Leod.] It is quite refreshing, in these days of scientific theology, ritualistic tendency, and clerical exclusiveness, to read the biography of that great Scotch divine, who passed away just 20 years ago on the 16th of June. Though one of her Majesty's chaplains, Dean of the Chapel Royal, and holding other high offices, yet he entered into the amusements and social life of his people in the Highland parishes with a vigour and eagerness only surpassed by the delight which it afforded him. Itis interesting to note the circumstances which inspired the verses given below. It is thus recorded in the memoir :— When a chance piper arrived, and the floor was cleared for a reel, he heartily enjoyed and cheerily applauded the merriment of the dances." What he felt at such times he has happily expressed in the poem. " Dance, my children ! lads and lasses ! Cut and shuffle, toes and heels ! Piper, roar from every chanter Hurricanesof Highland reels ! "Make tho old barn shake with laughter, Beat its flooring like a drum, Batter it with Tullochgorum Till the storm without is dumb 1" " Sweep in circles like a whirlwind, Flit across like meteors glancing, Crack your fingers, shout in gladness, Think of nothing but of dancing ! " Thus a grey-haired father sneaketh As he claps his hands and cheers ; Yet his heart is quietly dreaming, And his eyes are dimmed with tears. Well he knows this world of sorrow. Well he knows this world of sin, Well he knows the race before them— What's to lose and what's to win. Buthe hears a far-off music Guiding all the stately spheres ; In his father-heart it echoes, So he claps his hand and cheers.