ANNOTATIONS OF SCOTTISH SONGS BY BURNS: AN ESSENTIAL SUPPLEMENT TO CROMEK AND DICK, In which, on the authority of an important Burns Manuscript now in the Edinburgh University Library, many Notes hitherto deemed Spurious " and " Garbled," are restored to textual currency as authentic emanations of the Poet's song-lore. 66 HEN R. H. Cromek, in his Reliques of Robert Burns, W 1808, included the writings of the Bard as a song annotator, he prefaced them thus: "The chief part of the following Remarks on Scottish Songs and Ballads exist in the handwriting of Robert Burns, in an interleaved copy, in four volumes octavo, of Johnson's Scots Musical Museum. They were written by the Poet for Captain Riddel of Glenriddel, whose autograph the volumes bear. These valuable volumes were left by Mrs Riddel to her niece, Miss Eliza Bayley, of Manchester, by whose kindness the Editor is enabled to give to the public transcripts of this amusing and miscellaneous collection." For years, editor after editor, in edition after edition, copied the "Strictures on Scottish Songs," as printed by Cromek; for the whereabouts of the Interleaved Volume being unknown to them, they had perforce to lean upon the Reliques. A second edition of that work appeared in 1809, and the following year Cromek published, in two volumes, his Select Scotish Songs. This is how he begins his preface:"The following Remarks from the pen of Burns appeared in the publication of the Reliques." That statement is a bit wide of the truth. The Remarks in many cases do not follow the order of their first publication, thus making comparison awkward, but persistent collation shews that though Stenhouse and other authorities From a Frontispiece Drawing in one of his Manuscript Volumes now in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries, London, to whose courtesy we are indebted for this, probably the first published, portrait of the friend of the Poet. cite the Reliques of 1808 in quoting a comment by Burns. on "The boatie rows," that note, and twenty-one others printed in the 1810 volumes, did not appear in the Reliques; and of those which did make their debut in that work, two are omitted in Select Scotish Songs. At long last J. C. Dick, the scholarly editor of that invaluable volume, The Songs of Robert Burns, 1903, got access to the veritable Interleaved Copy of The Scots Musical Museum-a book so enriched by Burns that when it passed through Sotheby's it fetched £610. It is now in the collection of Dr John Gribbel, of Philadelphia, to whose splendid generosity Scotland owes its possession of two other treasure-books which link the names of Burns and Glenriddell for ever with his own. In The results of Mr Dick's careful scrutiny of the Interleaves appeared in a volume-of which only 255 copies were printed-published posthumously in 1908, exactly a hundred years after The Reliques of Robert Burns. Dick's book (another splendid contribution to real Burns literature) is entitled Notes on Scottish Song by Robert Burns, &c. it he dissects Cromek's Reliques version of Burns's "Strictures," and sets forth (1) the Notes found in the actual handwriting of Burns; (2) Notes written by Riddell and interspersed among those in the Poet's holograph, all of which (Riddell's) had for a century been accounted the legitimate prose offspring of Burns; (3) Notes which could not be verified, as the Interleaves, where presumably Cromek found them, have been abstracted from the volume. It would be a great find if they could be located, especially that leaf with the note on Highland Mary. Dick, in further introducing his volume, says: "The last part (4) consists of a series of Spurious Notes, also printed by Cromek in the Reliques. These are not in the (Glenriddell) volumes, and never were there." Referring to Cromek's 1810 additions, he says: "All the additions were written either by himself or by his friend in deception Allan Cunningham.' 66 Mr Dick branded fifteen Notes as "Spurious," and others, he says in his Appendix, "Cromek has garbled." By a lucky chance a friend sent me three cuttings from the Kilmarnock Standard (v.d. May, 1921) of an article written by Mr David Cuthbertson, Sub-Librarian of Edinburgh University, the subject being " Manuscripts of Robert Burns: The property of Edinburgh University." It was an interesting article all through, but the parts which made me open my eyes wide were certain quotations of Song Annotations by Burns, taken from a separate manuscript written on Excise paper, and consisting of twelve folio pages," entirely in the handwriting of the Poet. To my amazement, I found that the passages cited were, word for word, the same as some of the Notes classified as "spurious" by Mr Dick. This appeared very significant, and seemed to indicate that while, as Cromek says-and there is great virtue in his phraseology-" the chief part" of the Notes printed in his Reliques of Robert Burns were, as stated, from the Interleaved copy of the Scots Musical Museum, he had also drawn upon at least one other unstated source-this very Burns Manuscript of twelve folio pages, which is one of the Laing MSS. now treasured in the Library of Edinburgh University. The correctness of this deduction was amply confirmed by a verbatim transcript of this most important and illuminative manuscript, obligingly and with helpful courtesy furnished by Mr Frank C. Nicholson, M.A., Chief Librarian of the University, whose great kindness and generous permission to make the fullest use thereof for the information of students of Burns literature has made this article possible. For purposes of reference the Editor was strongly of opinion that the manuscript should be printed in full in the Annual Burns Chronicle, and I had no hesitation in placing it at his disposal. TRANSCRIPT OF A BURNS MANUSCRIPT OF 12 FOLIO PAGES IN (p. 1): Waukin o' the Fauld.-There are two stanzas still sung to this tune, which I take to be the original song when Ramsay composed his beautiful song of that name in the "Gentle Shepherd.” It begins : I regret that, as in many of our old songs, the delicacy of this old fragment is not equal to its wit and humor. Maggie Lauder. Mill, Mill, O.-The original, or at least prior to Ramsay's, is still extant. It begins : a song evidently As I cam down yon waterside, And by yon shillin-hill, O, There I spied a bonie, bonie lass, Chorus The mill, mill, O, and the kill, kill, O, And the coggin o' Peggy's wheel, O, The sack and the sieve, and a' she did leave, And danc'd the Miller's reel, O. The remaining two stanzas, though pretty enough, partake rather too much of the rude simplicity of the "olden time" to be admitted here. (p. 2): Bob o' Dumblane.-Ramsay, as usual, has modernised this song. The original, which I learned on the spot, from my Hostess in the principal Inn there :-- Lassie, lend me your braw hemp heckle, And I'll lend you my thripplin-kame; And we'll gae dance the bob o' Dumblane. Twa gaed to the wood, to the wood, to the wood, I insert this song to introduce the following anecdote which I have heard well authenticated. In the evening of the day of the |