Volume 6 / Part 2 — WILLIAM DOBIE.
Reading edition
An accomplished antiquary, and writer of verses, William Dobie was born in 1790, in the village of Beith, Ayrshire. Educated at the parish school, he was in his thirteenth year apprenticed to a mechanical profession. At the close of his apprenticeship, he commenced business in his native district. In 1822, the munificence of a wealthy relative enabled him to retire from his occupation, which had proved unsuitable to his tastes. For several years he resided in London. He subsequently made a tour through Britain, and visited the Continent. His "Perambulations in Kintyre," a manuscript volume, is frequently quoted by Mr Cosmo Innes, in his "Origines Parochiales Scotiæ," a valuable work printed for the Bannatyne Club. In 1840 he prepared a history of the parish of Kilbirnie, for the "New Statistical Account." He afterwards published an account of the church and churchyard of Kilbirnie, in an interesting pamphlet. Recently Mr Dobie has superintended the erection of a monument to Sir William Wallace, on Barnweil Hill, near Kilmarnock, which has been reared at the entire cost of William Patrick, Esq., of Roughwood. The greater number of the many spirited inscriptions on the monument are the composition of Mr Dobie.
THE DREARY REIGN OF WINTER 'S PAST.
Air—'Loch Errochside.'
The dreary reign of Winter 's past, The frost, the snow, the surly blast, To polar hills are scouring fast; For balmy Spring 's returning. Adown Glen-Garnock's lonely vale, The torrent's voice has ceased to wail; But soft low notes, borne on the gale, Dispel dull gloom and mourning. With toil and long fatigue depress'd, Exhausted nature sunk oppress'd, Till waken'd from her slumbering rest, By balmy Spring returning. Now in flower'd vesture, green and gay, Lovelier each succeeding day; Soon from her face shall pass away, Each trace of Winter's mourning. Lo, at her mild benign command, Life rouses up on every hand; While bursts of joy o'er all the land, Hail balmy Spring returning. E'en murmuring stream and raving linn, And solemn wood in softened din, All join great Nature's praise to hymn, That fled is Winter's mourning. While all on earth, and in the skies, In transports fervently rejoice, Shall man refuse to raise his voice, And welcome Spring returning? If such ingrates exist below, They ne'er can feel the sacred glow, That Nature and the Muse bestow, To cheer the gloom of mourning.