FOOTNOTES:
[208] Burns here calls himself the “Voice of Coila,” in imitation of Ossian, who denominates himself the “Voice of Cona.”—Currie.
[209] By Thomson, not the musician, but the poet.
[210] This song is not old; its author, the late John Mayne, long outlived Burns
[211] By Crawfurd.
[212] By Ramsay.
[213] The author, John Tait, a writer to the Signet and some time Judge of the police-court in Edinburgh, assented to this, and altered the line to,
“And sweetly the wood-pigeon cooed from the tree.”
“How sweet this lone vale, and how soothing to feeling,
Yon nightingale’s notes which in melody meet.”
The song has found its way into several collections.