Nae silken hose with gushats fine, Ae little coat and bodice white A thousand beauties of desert Before had scarce alarm'd me, I had nae heart to do her harm, *This song, which appeared in the Tea-Table Miscellany, (1724,) was founded upon a real incident. The bonnie lass was daughter to a woman who kept an alehouse at the hamlet near Branksome Castle, in Teviotdale. A young officer, of some rank,-his name we believe was Maitland,-happened to be quartered somewhere in the neighbourhood, saw, loved, and married her. So strange was such an alliance deemed in those days, that the old mother, under whose auspices it was performed, did not escape the imputation of witchcraft. WINDING NITH. BURNS. TUNE-The Mucking o' Geordie's Byre. ADOWN winding Nith I did wander, The daisy amused my fond fancy, charmer, Yon knot of gay flowers in the arbour, That wakes through the green spreading grove, When Phoebus peeps over the mountains, On music, on pleasure, and love. But beauty, how frail and how fleeting, Awa wi' your belles and your beauties! Whaever has met wi' my Phillis, Has met wi' the queen o' the fair.* OH! WAE'S ME FOR PRINCE CHARLIE. WILLIAM GLEN. TUNE-The Gipsy Laddie. A WEE bird cam to our ha' door, I took my bannet aff my head, For weel I lo'ed Prince Charlie. Quo' I, My bird, my bonny bonny bird, Or is't some words ye've learn'd by rote, Oh! wae's me for Prince Charlie! On hills that are by right his ain, My heart near bursted fairly, For sadly changed indeed was he; Oh! wae's me for Prince Charlie! *Written in honour of Miss Philadelphia Barbara Macmurdo, Drumlanrig, afterwards Mrs Norman Lockhart of Torbrax. This lady, who was the heroine of several other songs by Burns, died September 5, 1825. Dark night cam on, the tempest howl'd And where was't that your Prince lay down, Oh! wae's me for Prince Charlie ! But now the bird saw some red-coats, I'll tarry here nae langer. Ere he departed fairly; But weel I mind the fareweel strain Was, Wae's me for Prince Charlie ! MERRY MAY THE KEEL ROWE.* As I cam doun the Cannogate, The keel rowe, the keel rowe, The ship that my love's in, O! My love has breath o' roses, O' roses, o' roses, Wi' arms o' lily posies, To fauld a lassie in, O! This seems, from the allusions, to have been the ditty of some one of the Jacobite ladies of the Canongate of Edinburgh, regarding either Prince Charles Stuart himself, or one of his adherents. My love he wears a bonnet, A dimple on his chin, O! WALIFOU FA' THE CAT. As I gaed down by Tweedside, Walifou fa' the cat. Walifou fa' the cat, She's bred the house muckle wanease,* She's open'd the awmrie-door, And eaten up a' the cheese. She's eaten up a' the cheese, O' the kebbuck she's no left a bit; And it's faun in the sowen-kit, It's out o' the sowen-kit, And it's into the maister-can;† And now it's sae fiery saut, It will pussion a' our guidman.‡ AULD GUDEMAN, YE'RE A DRUCKEN CARLE. SIR ALEXANDER BOswell. TUNE-The East Neuk o' Fife. Auld guidman, ye're a drucken carle, drucken carle; A' the lang day ye wink and drink, and gape and gaunt; Uneasiness. This will not bear explanation. + From Herd's Collection, 1776. |