THE POSY.
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 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 with thee, my ain pretty May,
Wi’ thy red rosy cheeks, any 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.”