YOUNG JOCKEY. Tune-" Young Jockey." I. YOUNG Jockey was the blythest lad II. My Jockey toils upon the plain, Thro' wind and weet, thro' frost and snaw: And o'er the lea I leuk fu' fain, When Jockey's owsen hameward ca'. An' ay the night comes round again, As lang's he has a breath to draw. Johnson put the letter Z to this song, denoting that it was old, with additions. What is old of it may be found in Oswald's Collection, under the title of— "Jockie was the blythest lad in a' our town." With the exception of three or four lines, it is the work of Burns. The Poet often sat down to modify old strains to suit the music, and rose after having penned verses wholly, or almost wholly new. He had no pleasure in allowing an old song to pass through his hands without bestowing upon it a few characteristic touches, to mend the humour and improve the sentiment. Many instances of these felicitous changes have already been given ;— many more will yet appear. It will generally be found that he has bestowed life and truth wherever he made an alteration, and that he has obeyed the spirit of the old composition. O, WILLIE BREW'D. Tune-" Willie brew'd a Peck o' Maut." I. O, WILLIE brew'd a peck o' maut, We are na fou, we're no that fou, The cock may craw, the day may daw, II. Here are we met, three merry boys, III. It is the moon-I ken her horn, She shines sae bright to wyle us hame, IV. Wha first shall rise to gang awa', A cuckold, coward loon is he! And The scene of this song is Laggan, in Dunscore; a small estate which Nicol bought that he might be near Burns; which induced the latter to call him ironically "The illustrious lord of Laggan's many hills.” It was composed to commemorate the "house-heating," as entering upon possession of a new house is called in Scotland. William Nicol made the browst strong and nappy; and Allan Masterton, then on a visit at Dalswinton, crossed the Nith, and, with the Poet and his celebrated punch-bowl, reached Laggan "A wee before the sun gaed down." The sun, however, rose on their carousal, if the tradition of the land may be trusted. "We had such a joyous meeting," says Burns, “ that Masterton and I agreed, each in our own way, to celebrate the business." Allan accordingly composed the air, and Robert wrote the verses. They became almost instantly popular. The punch was made, it is said, by the experienced hand of Nicol, a jovial man and no flincher; and more merry stories, and more queer tales were told on that night, as a person who waited on them asserted, "than wad hae made a book." It was the pleasure of Nicol, sometimes when at table, to assert that, as a punishment for keeping other than sober company, he was enduring a sort of hell upon earth-nay, he would declare that he was dead and condemnedsuffering penal torments—and relate conversations which he had held with the Prince of Darkness concerning friends left behind. These strange sallies had generally an ironical meaning; and once, it is said, when glancing at the Poet's irregularities, the latter exclaimed "Losh man, hae mercy wi' your knatch Your bodkin's bauld." On The bowl in which Willie made the punch for this carousal is formed of Inverary marble, and was wrought for the Poet by his father-in-law, a skilful mason. the death of Burns it was rimmed and bottomed with silver, and presented to Alexander Cunningham. On his death, after several vicissitudes of fortune, it fell into the hands of my friend Archibald Hastie, of London, who, sensible of the worth and the use of a relic so precious, preserves it with proper care; and duly, on the 25th of January, sets it before a select company of Burnsites, full of the reeking liquor which its great owner loved. An Irish gentleman wished to know, it is said, if gold could buy it; but observing the owner shake his head, exclaimed, “It is very well where it is, but I wished to take it to Ireland with me, for Burns, to be a Scotchman, had more of the right Irish heart about him than any boy that ever penned ballads!" |