III.—SCOTLAND
[CXXVIII]
The Tea-Table Miscellany: a Collection of Choice Songs (Edinburgh, 4 vols., 1724–7).
[CXXIX]
This ‘matchless wail’ (as Scott called it) was written in 1756. For some time it was thought to be a genuine relic of the past. Burns was one of the first to insist that it was a modern composition. The ‘Forest’ is, of course, Ettrick Forest, that romantic district comprising most of Selkirkshire and the neighbouring parts of Peebles and Edinburgh shires. A few straggling thorns and solitary birches are the sole remaining traces of this ‘fein foreste,’ once the favourite hunting-ground of the Scottish kings.
bandsters. Binders of sheaves.
bogle. ‘Hide and seek.’
buchts. Pen in which ewes are enclosed at milking-time.
daffin’. Making merry.
dool. Sorrow.
dowie. Doleful.
fleechin’. Coaxing.
gabbin’. Talking pertly.
har’st. Harvest.
ilk, ilka. Every.
liltin’. Singing.
loanin’. Lane.
laighlin. Milking pail.
lyart. Hoary-headed.
mair. More.
runkled. Wrinkled.
swankies. Lively young fellows.
wae. Sad.
wede. Weeded.
[CXXX]
Written on the Marquess of Huntley’s departure for Holland, with the English forces, under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby, in 1799.
[CXXXI]–[CXXXIV]
The first is number 259 in vol. iii. of Johnson’s Musical Museum (1790), signed ‘Z.’ ‘The first half stanza of this song is old—the rest is mine.’—Author’s note in interleaved copy.
The second was written in 1793, and first published in the Morning Chronicle (May, 1794). The old air, Hey, tuttie, taitie, to which Burns ‘fitted’ this poem, is said to have been Bruce’s marching tune at Bannockburn.
The third appeared in the Edinburgh Courant (May 4, 1795), and in the Dumfries Journal (May 5, 1795), and is number 546 in vol. ii. of Johnson’s Musical Museum (1803).
The fourth was written in 1795 for the Irish air Humours of Glen, and published in the Edinburgh Magazine (May, 1797), and in vol. ii. of Thomson’s Scottish Airs (1799).
[CXXXV]–[CXXXVII]
The first is the opening stanza of the sixth canto of The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805).
The second consists of part of stanza 33, and the whole of stanza 34 of the sixth canto of Marmion (1808).
l. 5. vaward. Vanguard.
7. The horn of Roland, nephew of Charlemagne, the sound of which carried a fabulous distance.
The third was written for Albyn’s Anthology (1816). ‘Donuil Dhu’ means ‘Donald the Black.’
[CXXXVIII]–[CXL]
The first is from The Monastery (1820).
l. 8. the Queen. Mary, Queen of Scots.
9. hirsels. Flocks.
The second, written in 1825, first appeared in The Doom of Devergoil (1830), Act ii. scene 2.
‘The air of Bonnie Dundee running in my head to-day,’ Scott writes (22nd December), ‘I wrote a few verses to it before dinner, taking the keynote from the story of Clavers leaving the Scottish Convention of Estates in 1688–9. I wonder if they are good!’ (Journal, i. 60).
barkened. Tanned.
carline. Old woman.
couthie. Kind.
douce. Quiet.
duniewassals. Yeomen.
flyting. Scolding.
gang. Go.
ilk. Every.
pow. Pate.
target. A round shield.
The full title of the third number is ‘War Song of the Royal Edinburgh Light Dragoons.’ It was written under the apprehension of a French invasion. The corps of volunteers to which the song is addressed was raised in 1797, and consisted of Edinburgh gentlemen mounted and armed at their own expense.
[CXLI]
From Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 3 vols. (1802–1803). The first four lines of the fourth stanza appear on the title-page of Marmion.
[CXLII]
First published in Cromek’s Remains of Nithisdale and Galloway Song (1810), when the author was a working mason.
[CXLIII]
Johnson’s Musical Museum, vol. iii. (1790). A similar song, The Clans are Coming, is included in Ritson’s Scottish Songs (1794).
[CXLIV]
Collected Works, edited by William Anderson (1851). I have found many versions of this old song, but none to equal Gilfillan’s.
[CXLV]–[CXLVI]
Both from Songs of Travel (Chatto & Windus, 1896). By permission of Charles Baxter, Esq., executor of the author.
The second was written at Vailima, Samoa, and is addressed ‘To S. R. Crockett, Esq.’ The author writes from Vailima to Mr. Crockett (May 17, 1893):—‘I shall never set my foot again upon the heather. Here I am until I die, and here will I be buried. The word is out, and the doom written.’—Letters, vol. ii. p. 287 (Methuen & Co., 1899).
l. 3. Whaups. Curlews.
11. Peewees. Lapwings.
[CXLVII]
Blackwood’s Magazine (January 1900). By permission of the author and the editor of Blackwood’s Magazine.