I'll have no funeral fire, The courteous redbreast, he And sing my elegy With doleful voice. And when a ghost I am, O thou deceitful dame, Has kill'd the kindest heart That e'er felt Cupid's dart, And never can desert ~ Burns, in his notes to "Johnson's Museum," says: "The following interesting account of this plaintive dirge was communicated to Mr. Riddel by Alexander Frazer Tytler, Esq., of Woodhouselee: 'In the latter end of the sixteenth century the Chisholms were proprietors of the estate of Cromlecks (now possessed by the Drummonds). The eldest son of that family was very much attached to a daughter of Stirling of Ardoch, commonly known by the name of fair Helen of Ardoch. At that time the opportunities of meeting betwixt the sexes were more rare, consequently more sought after than now; and the Scottish ladies, far from priding themselves on extensive literature, were thought sufficiently book-learned if they could make out the Scriptures in their mother-tongue. Writing was entirely out of the line of female education: at that period the most of our young men of family sought a fortune, or found a grave, in France. Cromlus, when he went abroad to the war, was obliged to leave the management of his correspondence with his mistress to a lay brother of the monastery of Dumblain, in the immediate neighbourhood of Cromleck, and near Ardoch. This man, unfortunately, was deeply sensible of Helen's charms. He artfully prepossessed her with stories to the disadvantage of Cromlus; and by the misinterpreting or keeping up the letters and messages intrusted to his care, he entirely irritated both. All connexion was broken off betwixt them: Helen was inconsolable; and Cromlus has left behind him, in the ballad called 'Cromlet's Lilt,' a proof of the elegance of his genius, as well as the steadiness of his love. When the artful monk thought time had sufficiently softened Helen's sorrow, he proposed himself as a lover: Helen was obdurate; but at last, overcome by the persuasions of her brother, with whom she lived, and who, having a family of thirty-one children, was probably very well pleased to get her off his hands, she submitted rather than consented to the ceremony. But there her compliance ended; and, when forcibly put into bed, she started quite frantic from it, screaming out, that, after three gentle taps on the wainscot, at the bed-head, she heard Cromlus' voice, crying, 'Helen, Helen, mind me!' Cromlus soon after coming home, the treachery of the confidant was discovered, her marriage disannulled, and Helen became Lady Cromlecks." This song is usually sung to the fine old melody claimed by the Irish and the Scotch, and known to the one as "Aileen Aroon," and to the other as "Robin Adair." THROUGH THE WOOD, LADDIE. From the "Tea-Table Miscellany," 1724. Air-" Through the wood." O SANDY, why leave thus thy Nelly to mourn? When naething could please me ; Now dowie I sigh on the bank o' the burn, Though woods now are bonnie and mornings are clear, And primroses springing; Yet nane o' them pleases my eye or my ear, When through the wood, laddie, ye dinna appear. That I am forsaken, some spare not to tell ; Baith e'enin' an' mornin'; ; Their jeering gaes aft to my heart wi' a knell, Then stay, my dear Sandy, nae langer away; But quick as an arrow Haste, haste to thy marrow, Wha's living in languor till that happy day, WALY, WALY. ANONYMOUS. From the "Tea-Table Miscellany," 1724. Он, waly, waly up the bank, And waly, waly down the brae, And thoucht it was a trusty tree; d Oh, waly, waly, but love be bonnie And fades away like the morning dew. And says he'll never love me mair. Now Arthur's Seat shall be my bed, 'Tis not the frost that freezes fell, Nor blawing snaw's inclemencie ; "Tis not sic cauld that makes me cry; But my love's heart's grown cauld to me. But had I wist before I kiss'd That love had been sae ill to win, And I mysel' were dead and gone, And the green grass growin' ower me! Nothing is known with certainty as to the authorship of this exquisite song-one of the most affecting of the many that Scotland can boast. It has been supposed to refer to an incident in the life of the Lady Barbara Erskine, wife of the second Marquis of Douglas; but the allusions are evidently to the deeper woes of one not a wife -who "loved not wisely, but too well." THE EWE-BUGHTS. From the "Tea-Table Miscellany," 1724. WILL ye gae to the ewe-bughts, Marion, Oh, Marion's a bonnie lass, And the blythe blink's in her ee; Gin Marion wad marry me. There's gowd in your garters, Marion, At e'en when I come hame. There's braw lads in Earnslaw, Marion, I've nine milk-ewes, my Marion, And ye'se get a green sey apron, I'm young and stout, my Marion; And gin ye forsake me, Marion, Sae put on your pearlins, Marion, And kirtle o' cramasie; And as sune as my chin has nae hair on, I will come west and see ye. This song is signed by Allan Ramsay with a Q., signifying that it was an old Song with additions and amendments by himself. The air is old and very beautiful. "Your remarks on the 'Ewe-Bughts' are just," says Burns in a letter to Thomson; "sti it has obtained a place among our more classical Scottish songs; and what with many beauties in its composition, and more prejudices in its favour, you will not find it easy to supplant it." MAXWELTON BANKS. MAXWELTON banks are bonnie, She's backit like the peacock, I'll lay me doun and die. "These two verses," as we are informed by Mr. Robert Chambers, "were written by a Mr. Douglas of Finland, upon Anne, one of the four daughters of Sir Robert Laurie, first baronet of Maxwelton, by his second wife, who was a daughter of Riddell of Minto. As Sir Robert was created a baronet in the year 1685, it is probable that the verses were composed about the end of the seventeenth or the beginning of the eighteent century. It is painful to record, that, notwithstanding the ardent and chivalrous affection displayed by Mr. Douglas in his poem, he did not obtain the heroine for a wife: she was married to Mr. Ferguson of Craigdarroch." The first four lines of the second stanza are taken from the old and indecent ballad of " John Anderson my Jo," a fact which Mr. Chambers has not mentioned. The ballad of 'John Anderson," as it was sung before it was rendered decent by Robert Burns, appeared in a very scarce volume of English songs, with the music, entitled "The Convivial Songster," published in 1782. ANNIE LAURIE. MAXWELTON braes are bonnie, |