This song is Dr. Blacklock’s.—I don’t know how it came by the name, but the oldest appellation of the air was, “Whistle and I’ll come to you, my lad.”
It has little affinity to the tune commonly known by that name.
THE BONIE BANKS OF AYR.
I composed this song as I conveyed my chest so far on the road to Greenock, where I was to embark in a few days for Jamaica.
I meant it as my farewell dirge to my native land.
JOHN O’ BADENYON.
This excellent song is the composition of my worthy friend, old Skinner, at Linshart.
“When first I cam to be a man
Of twenty years or so,
I thought myself a handsome youth,
And fain the world would know;
In best attire I stept abroad,
With spirits brisk and gay,
And here and there and everywhere,
Was like a morn in May;
No care had I nor fear of want,
But rambled up and down,
And for a beau I might have pass’d
In country or in town;
I still was pleas’d where’er I went,
And when I was alone,
I tun’d my pipe and pleas’d myself
Wi’ John o’ Badenyon.