E'en time itself despairs to cure No cold approach, no alter'd mien, He made me blest-and broke my heart.* THE SOUTERS O' SELKIRK. TUNE-The Souters of Selkirk. IT'S up with the souters o' Selkirk, Fye upon yellow and yellow, And fye upon yellow and green; It's up wi' the souters o' Selkirk, For they are baith trusty and leal; The quatrain ending here was supplied by Burns, to make the stanzas suit the music. This beautiful poem first appeared in Johnson's Musical Museum, Part IV, 1792. And up wi' the lads o' the Forest, O, MAY, THY MORN. BURNS. O, MAY, thy morn was ne'er sae sweet * The first and third verse of this strange rant are from Johnson's Musical Museum, [vol. v, circa 1798.] The second verse is supplied from a copy published in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. There are various ways of accounting for the origin and occasion of the song; but it seems probable that the writer of the Statistical Account of the parish of Selkirk is right, when he says that it refers to a match at foot-ball which took place at some remote period between the Hume and Philiphaugh families, and in which the shoemakers of Selkirk acted a conspicuous part. The colours execrated in the second verse are those of the Earl of Hume's livery. The following is an expanded version of the song from Mr Allan Cunningham's Collection: Up with the souters of Selkirk, And down with the Earl of Home! Wha sew the single-soled shoon! O! fye upon yellow and yellow, Up wi' the souters of Selkirk- There's fame wi' the days that's coming, Up wi' the souters of Selkirk- And up with the men of the Forest, O! mitres are made for noddles, But feet they are made for shoon; And fame is as sib to Selkirk As light is true to the moon. There sits a souter in Selkirk, Wha sings as he draws his thread- For sparkling was the rosy wine, And here's to them that, like oursell, CHARLIE, HE'S MY DARLING. [OLD VERSES.] TUNE-Charlie is my darling.. 'TWAS on a Monday morning, And Charlie he's my darling, My darling, my darling; The young Chevalier. As he was walking up the street, O there he spied a bonnie lass, Sae licht's he jumped up the stair, And wha sae ready as hersell, He set his Jenny on his knee, It's up yon heathy mountain, We daurna gang a-milking, * STEER HER UP AND HAUD HER GAUN. TUNE-Steer her up and haud her gaun. O STEER her up and haud her gaun; See that shining glass of claret, Take it aff, and let's have mair o't; From Johnson's Musical Museum, vol. v, circa 1798. Let's have pleasure, while we're able; Call the drawer; let him fill it CLOUT THE CALDRON.+ TUNE-Clout the Caldron. HAVE ye any pots or pans, And newly come frae Flanders, *From the Tea-Table Miscellany, 1724. "A tradition is mentioned in The Bee,' that the second Bishop Chisholm of Dunblane used to say, that if he were going to be hanged, nothing would soothe his mind so much by the way, as to hear Clout the Caldron' played. "I have met with another tradition, that the old song to this tune Hae ye ony pots or pans, Or ony broken chandlers? was composed on one of the Kenmure family, in the earlier times, and alluded to an amour he had, while under hiding, in the disguise of an itinerant tinker. The air is also known by the name of The blacksmith and his apron,' which, from the rhythm, seems to have been a line of some old song to the tune."-BURNS, apud Cromek's Select Scottish Songs, I, 11. Candlesticks. |