to whom I am indebted for the anecdote, kept for some years as an amanuensis. I do not know who is the author of the second song to the tune. Tytler, in his amusing history of Scots music, gives the air to Oswald; but in Oswald's own collection of Scots tunes, where he affixes an asterisk to those he himself composed, he does not make the least claim to the tune. "Twas in that season of the year, When all things gay and sweet appear, Of Nanny's charms the shepherd sung, Awake, sweet Muse! the breathing spring, Who hail the morning with a song; Alluding, as it is said in a note, to a sort of narrative songs, which make no inconsiderable part of the innocent amusements with which the country people (of Cumberland) pass the wintry nights, and of which the author of the present piece was a faithful rehearser. Blacklock's Poems, 1756, 8vo. p. 5. To Nanny raise the cheerful lay, O, hark, my love! on ev'ry spray, O! come, my love! thy Colin's lay O! hither haste, and with thee bring And charm this ravish'd breast of mine! THE BEDS OF SWEET ROSES. THIS song, as far as I know, for the first time appears here in print.--When I was a boy, it was a very popular song in Ayrshire. I remember to have heard those fanatics, the Buchanites,* sing some of their nonsensical rhymes, which they dignify with the name of hymns, to this air † * A set of itinerant fanatics in the west of Scotland, so denominated from their leader, Elizabeth Buchan. The husband of this visionary was one of the proprietors of the Delft-work manufactory at Glasgow, by whom she had several children. About 1779 she began to prophecy that the end of the world was drawing nigh, and that all Christians must abandon worldly connexions, in order to be in readiness to meet Christ. She soon gathered a great number of followers, and journeyed with them through several parts of Scotland, increasing as they went. At length Mrs. Buchan died in 1791, and her disciples dispersed. scarce + This practice of composing spiritual hymns and songs to common ballad tunes was laughed at by Shakespeare in his Winter's Tale, where he speaks of a Puritan who sings psalms to hornpipes; and that it obtained long anterior to the time of the Buchanites, the curious reader may see, if he can meet with a ver book quoted in "Campbell's History of Poetry in Scotland," which appeared in Mr. Constable's sale Catalogue for 1796, called Geddes's Saints Recreation, &c. addressed, in the very spirit of modern dedication, to no less than five Patronesses! each of whom the author hath honoured with a separate dedi cation, SAW YE JOHNNIE CUMMIN? QUO' she. THIS song for genuine humor in the verses, and lively originality in the air, is unparalleled. I take it to be very old. Saw ye Johnnie cummin? quo' she, O saw ye Johnnie cummin, quo' she; Wi' his blue bonnet on his head, And his doggie runnin, quo' she; cation, expressive of his notions of their piety, pretensions to nobility, &c. &c. The reader may see many specimens of this pious nonsense in "Ane compendious booke of Godly and spirituall Songs," &c. 1621, specimens of which the late Lord Hailes published in 1764. The whole was republished, with a valuable Introduction, by Dalzell, Edin. 1801. Similar performances made their appearance among the Bereans in Scotland, the production of their spiritual guide, Mr. Barclay. Among others are these titles: "Haud awa', bide awa', haud awa frae me Deilie”—“Wat ye wha I met yestreen, lying on my bed, Mamma?—an angel bright," &c. Fee him, father,* fee him, quo' she; Fee him, father, fee him: For he is a gallant lad, And a weel doin'; And a' the wark about the house Gaes wi' me when I see him, quo' she; Wi' me when I see him. What will I do wi' him, hussy? For weel do I lo'e him, quo' she; Weel do I lo'e him: O fee him, father, fee him, quo' she; He'll haud the pleugh, thrash i' the barn, * Hire him. |