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The bonie lassie made the bed to me,
The braw lass made the bed to me:
I'll ne'er forget till the day that I die,
The lass that made the bed to me!

I HAD A HORSE AND I HAD NAE MAIR.

THIS story was founded on fact. A John Hunter, ancestor to a very respectable farming family who live in a place in the parish, I think, of Galston, called Barr-mill, was the luckless hero that had a horse and had nae mair.-For some little youthful follies he found it necessary to make a retreat to the West-Highlands, where he feed himself to a Highland Laird, for that is the expression of all the oral editions of the song I ever heard.-The present Mr. Hunter, who told me the anecdote, is the great grand-child to our hero.

I had a horse, and I had nae mair,

I gat him frae my daddy;

My purse was light, and my heart was sair,
But my wit it was fu' ready.

And sae I thought me on a time,
Outwittens of my daddy,

To fee mysel to a lawland laird,
Wha had a bonny lady..

I wrote a letter, and thus began,
"Madam, be not offended,

you,

I'm o'er the lugs in love wi'
And care not tho' ye kend it:
For I get little frae the laird,

And far less frae my daddy,
And I would blythely be the man
Would strive to please my lady."

She read my letter, and she leugh,

"Ye needna been sae blate, man;
You might hae come to me yoursel,
And tauld me o' your state, man:
You might hae come to me yoursel,
Outwittens o' ony body,

And made John Gowkston of the laird,*
And kiss'd his bonny lady."

*To make John Gowkston of a laird, is, I fear, an unintelligible phrase to a mere English reader: when he is told that the word Gowk is Scotch for Cuckoo, a very familiar association will supply him with the rest.-Ed.

Then she pat siller in my purse,
We drank wine in a coggie;
She feed a man to rub my horse,
And wow! but I was vogie.
But I gat ne'er sa sair a fleg,
Since I came frae my daddy,
The laird came, rap rap, to the yett,
When I was wi' his lady.

Then she pat me below a chair,
And happ'd me wi' a plaidie;
But I was like to swarf wi' fear,
And wish'd me wi' my daddy.
The laird went out, he saw na me,
I went when I was ready:
I promis'd, but I ne'er gade back
To kiss his bonny lady.

A ROSE-BUD BY MY EARLY WALK.

THIS song I composed on Miss Jenny Cruikshank, only child to my worthy friend Mr. Wm. Cruikshank, of the High-School, Edinburgh. The air is by a David Sillar, quondam Merchant, and

now Schoolmaster in Irvine. He is the Davie to whom I address my printed poetical epistle in the measure of the Cherry and the Slae.*

* The Cherry and the Slae was written by Capt. Alexander Montgomery (See "The Evergreen," 1724). He died 1591. To the admirers of this Allegory the following excerpt from an unpublished work by the late Mr. Ritson will be interesting.

"That this Poem was written before 1584 is evident from its being repeatedly quoted by K. James VI. in his 'Rewlis and Cautells of Scottis Poesie,' printed in that year. Ramsay tells us, that his edition is taken from two curious old ones, the first printed by Robert Walgrave, the King's printer, in 1597, according to a copy corrected by the author himself; the other by Andro Hart, printed 1615, said on the title-page to be newly altered, perfyted, and divided into 114 quatuorzeims, not long before the author's death."

"The first of these editions, however, so far from having been corrected by the author, is both grossly inaccurate and manifestly surreptitious, not containing above half the Poem, and breaking off abruptly in the middle of a stanza. The other has not been met with, which is one reason why the entire Poem was not reprinted. Captain Montgomery was not, as is generally supposed, the inventor of this sort of stanza. He only imitated a more ancient piece, intitled, "THE BANKs of Helicon,' which is still extant; and the tune, to which both Poems appear to have been originally sung, is still known in Wales by the name of Glyn Helicon. The Allegory of this Poem (according to Dempster, who translated it into Latin) is the conflict of the Virtues and Vices, or the choice of a state in Youth.”

AULD ROBIN GRAY.

THIS air was formerly called The Bridegroom when the sun gangs down. The words are by Lady Ann Lindsay.

greets

When the sheep are in the fauld, and the ky at hame, And a' the warld to sleep are gane;

my

The waes of heart fa' in show'rs frae my ee,
When my gudeman lyes sound by me.

Young Jamie loo'd me weel, and he sought me for his bride,

But saving a crown he had naething beside;

To make that crown a pound, my Jamie gade to sea, And the crown and the pound were baith for me.

He had nae been awa a week but only twa,

When my mother she fell sick, and the cow was

stown awa;、

My father brak his arm, and

my

Jamie at the sea, And auld Robin Gray came a courting me.

My father coudna work, and my mother coudna

spin,

I toil'd day and night, but their bread I coudna

win;

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