Down the back o' Bell's brae, Courtin Maggie, courtin Maggie. Another of this name is Dr. Arne's beautiful air, called, the new Highland Laddie*. This is an Anglo-Scottish production, but by no means a bad one. Fairest of the Fair. It is too barefaced to take Dr. Percy's charming song, and by the means of changing a few English words into Scots, to offer to pass it for a Scots song. I was not acquainted with the editor until the first volume was nearly finished, else, had I known in time, I would have prevented such an impudent absurdity. The following observation was found in a memorandum book belonging to the poet. The Highlanders' prayer, at Sheriff-Muir. OL-d, be thou with us; but if thou be not with us, be not against us; but leave it between the red coats and us!" The Blaithrie o't*. The following is a set of this song, which was the earliest song I remember to have got by heart. When a child, an old woman sung it to me, and I picked it up, every word, at first hearing. O Willy, weel I mind, I lent you my hand, I'll not sing about confusion, delusion, or pride, I'll sing about a laddie was for a virtuous bride; For virtue is an ornament that time will never rot, And preferable to gear and the blaithrie o't.- Tho' my lassie hae nae scarlets or silks to put on, We envy not the greatest that sits upon the throne; I wad rather hae my lassie, tho' she cam in her smock, Than a princess wi' the gear and the blaithrie o't. Tho' we hae nae horses or minziet at command, We will toil on our foot, and we'll work wi' our hand; And when wearied without rest, we'll find it sweet in any spot, And we'll value not the gear and the blaithrie o't. If we hae ony babies, we'll count them as lent; Hae we less, hae we mair, we will aye be content; "Shame fall the geer and the blad❜ry o't," is the turn of an old Scottish song, spoken when a young handsome girl marries an old man, upon the account of his wealth. Kelly's Scots Proverbs, p. 296. + Minzie-retinue-followers. For they say they hae mair pleasure that wins but a groat, Than the miser wi' his gear and the blaithrie o't. I'll not meddle wi' th' affairs o' the kirk or the queen; They're nae matters for a sang, let them sink, let them swim, On your kirk I'll ne'er encroach, but I'll hold it still remote, Sae tak this for the gear and the blaithrie o't. May Eve, or Kate of Aberdeen. Kate of Aberdeen, is, I believe, the work of poor Cunningham the player, of whom the following anecdote, though told before, deserves a recital. A fat dignitary of the church coming past Cunningham one Sunday as the poor poet was busy plying a fishing-rod in some stream near Durham, his native country*, his reverence reprimanded Cunningham very severely for such an occupation on such a day. The poor poet, with that inoffensive gentleness of manners, which was his peculiar characteristic, replied, that he hoped God and his reverence would forgive his seeming profanity of that sacred day," as he had no dinner to eat, but what lay at the bottom of that pool!" This, Mr. Woods, the player, who knew Cunningham well, and esteemed him much, assured me was true. Tweed-Side. In Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, he tells us, that about thirty of the songs in that publication * Cunningham was a native of Ireland.-See Dr. Anderson's Life of Cunningham, British Poete, vol. x. were the works of some young gentlemen of his acquaintance; which songs are marked with the letters D, C, &c.-Old Mr. Tytler, of Woodhouselee, the worthy and able defender of the beauteous queen of Scots, told me that the songs marked C, in the Tea-Table, were the composition of a Mr. Crawford, of the house of Achnames, who was af terwards unfortunately drowned coming from France. As Tytler was most intimately acquainted with Allan Ramsay, I think the anecdote may be depended on. Of consequence, the beautiful song of Tweed-Side is Mr. Crawford's, and indeed does great honour to his poetical talents. He was a Robert Crawford; the Mary he celebrates, was a Mary Stewart, of the Castle-Milk family", afterwards married to a Mr. John Ritchie. I have seen a song, calling itself the original Tweed-Side, and said to have been composed by a lord Yester. It consisted of two stanzas, of which I still recollect the first. When Maggy and I was acquaint, I woo'd, but I came nae great speed; And lay my banes far frae the Tweed. The Posie. It appears evident to me, that Oswald composed his Roslin Castle on the modulation of this air. In the second part of Oswald's, in the three first If the reader refers to the note in page 137, he will there find that Mr. Walter Scott states this song to have been written in honour of another lady, a miss Mary Lilias Scott. bars, he has either hit on a wonderful similarity to, or else he has entirely borrowed the three first bars of the old air; and the close of both tunes is almost exactly the same. The old verses to which it was sung, when I took down the notes from a country girl's voice, had no great merit.-The following is a specimen: There was a pretty may and a milkin she went; Wi' her red rosy cheeks, and her coal-black hair: And she has met a young man a comin o'er the bent, With a double and adieu to thee, fair may. O where are ye goin, my ain pretty may, Wi' thy red rosy cheeks, and thy coal-black hair? Unto the yowes a milkin, kind sir, she says, With a double and adieu to thee, fair may. What if I gang alang wi' thee, my ain pretty may, Wi' thy red rosy cheeks, and thy coal-black hair? Wad I be aught the warse o' that, kind sir, she says, With a double and adieu to thee, fair may. &c. &c. Mary's Dreamt. The Mary here alluded to, is generally supposed to be miss Mary Macghie, daughter to the laird of May-maid-young woman. This is the pathetic song, beginning "The moon had climb'd the highest hill, And from the eastern summit shed |
