song by Burns that appears in The Scots Musical Museum, and in R. A. Smith's The Scottish Minstrel, to a melody totally different from Mrs Thomson's, and attributed to Oswald by Mr Stenhouse.

In the foregoing I have said nothing of the first and second versions of the song-" Sweet are the banks, the banks o' Doon," and " Ye flowery banks o' bonie Doon which were both sung to the tune Cambdelmore, and therefore outwith the discussion. This tune is uninteresting; but the second version of the words is infinitely superior, from the literary point of view, to that which has become so popular. It is more than probable that Burns wrote the third version in response to a request from Thomson, who erred so egregiously in his choice of a melody for "Scots Wha Hae."

J. M.BAIN.

NOTES ON THE SONG

"O ONCE I LOV'D A BONNIE LASS,"

WRITTEN BY ROBERT BURNS.

REFERENCES BY BURNS TO THE SONG.

(1) Burns's first Common-place Book, 1783; (2) his Letter to Mrs Stewart of Stair, September, 1786, sending a "Parcel of Songs," subsequently known as the "Stair MSS.," and now dispersed ; (3) his Poem addressed to the Gudewife of Wauchope House, March, 1787; and (4) his Autobiographical Letter to Dr Moore of 2nd August, 1787.

TEXT.

(1) Version in the first Common-place Book: the song is entered under date August, 1783-not April, as mentioned by most editors; (2) MS. of poem sent to Mrs Stewart of Stair, now believed to be that in the possession of Mr Adam Wood, Troon; and (3) Scots Musical Museum. The text differs considerably. Many of the variations given are in no respect improvements. These are as follows:

Verse 1, line 2—“ An' aye I love her still ” (Johnson's Museum). line 3-"An' whilst that honor warms my breast" (First Common-place Book and Stair MS.).

line 4-"I love my handsome Nell' (Stair MS.).

Verse 4, lines 2-4 in Stair MS. reads:

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Good-humour'd, frank and free,

And still the more I view them o'er

The more they capture me."

It is

In the Stair MS. the fifth verse is omitted. evident that the Poet was not satisfied with these variations, as he afterwards sent the song, in its original form, to Johnson for publication in the Museum.

DATE OF COMPOSITION.

In the first Common-place Book there is an elaborate criticism of the song, in which he says: "Done at an early period of my life.”

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"The following song," he remarks in the Stair MS., is only valuable to those who would see the author's first productions in verse. It was composed when he was a few months more than his sixteenth year."

Of the subject of the song Burns states in his letter to Dr Moore: 'This kind of life, the cheerless gloom of a hermit with the unceasing moil of a galley-slave, brought me to my sixteenth year, a little before which period I first committed the sin of rhyme. . . In my fifteenth autumn my partner was a bewitching creature, who just counted an autumn less."

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I think, therefore, we can safely assume that the song was composed by Burns in his fifteenth year (1774)— certainly not earlier. In my fifteenth autumn," he says in the letter to Dr Moore, and one would understand that the song was composed at that time. But elsewhere, as I have pointed out, the Poet expressly says it was written when he was a few months more than his sixteenth year— that is, in 1775. Several editors-including Scott Douglas -have assigned the song to the year 1773, but there is no authority for doing so. Dr Wallace places it among the Poet's "Juvenile " pieces.

DATE OF PUBLICATION.

The song was first published by Dr Currie. It is frequently asserted by editors of Burns that the poem first appeared in the Scots Musical Museum, but this is a mistake. Before its appearance in the Museum in 1803, it was given by Dr Currie. Burns included an abridgment of his first Common-place Book in the volume of Letters which he had transcribed in 1794 for Robert Riddell of Glenriddell. Currie included this abridgment as an appendix to his first volume.

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The song appeared in the sixth volume of the Museum, 1803, No. 551, without the Fal de lal" chorus in the Common-place Book. The air to which Burns wrote his verses was I am a man unmarried the favourite reel for which Burns wrote the verses. Mr James C. Dick was unable to trace this air.

of the song.

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HEROINE OF THE SONG.

Some discrepancy of opinion exists as to the heroine Notwithstanding the frequent references to it by the Poet, he nowhere mentions the name of the sweet sonsy lass" for whom the poem was composed. This "bewitching creature," as her poetical admirer termed her, has been handed down to posterity as Handsome Nell," that being the title of the song addressed to her by Burns.

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Dr Currie is silent about the identity of the heroine, although he is the first publisher of the poem. The first reference to her, so far as I have been able to trace, is to be found in the edition published by the Rev. Hamilton Paul in 1819. Unfortunately he does not give the name of the girl, but refers to her incidentally in the opening pages of his sketch of the Poet's life as follows :—

"This nymph was afterwards married to a Carrick farmer, and became the mother of many sons and daughters, and who, when we saw her in 1811, still retained the characteristic of sonsieness, which so fascinated her helpmate in the work of harvest as to betray him into the sin of rhyme. She sung delightfully, and he wrote a copy of verses to her favourite air or reel."

Can this have been Nelly Blair, the recognised heroine of the song up to the year 1851, when a claim was put forward on behalf of Nelly Kilpatrick, or Kirkpatrick, as the true inspirer of the poem ?

A letter under the signature "N," which appeared in the Scotsman in 1828, stated that the heroine of the song was Nelly Blair, a servant in the house of a friend of his, an extensive land proprietor in Ayrshire. Burns, according

to this writer, was a frequent visitor to this gentleman's kitchen in his younger days, and wrote many more songs on Nelly. This correspondent, who writes from the recollections of a lady, "whose personal knowledge of the Poet was long and intimate," throws some interesting light on the Poet's early years. It also deals with (1) Burns's alleged residence in Glasgow, and (2) his visit to Inveraray. The lady's recollections of the Poet are as follows:

"The lady, who belongs to an old and respectable family in the west, first knew Burns when a ploughmanlad,' and before he had tried his luck in black-prent,' even at which period his peculiarities had made him an object of some notice, and of considerable attraction amongst his own class of both sexes. He was particularly distinguished at that species of merry-making called 'Rockins,' which are frequently alluded to in his writings.... On these occasions my narrator remembers well the distinguished part Burns used to take in the business of the evening. Often has she met him at the head of a little troop, coming from a distance of three or four miles, with the spinning-wheel of his favourite, for the time being, mounted on his shoulders, and his approach announced by the bursts of merriment which his ready and rough jokes had excited amongst the group. It was always expected that some new effusion of his muse should be produced to promote the enjoyment of the party, and seldom were they disappointed- Rob Burns's last night's poem generally reaching the parlour in the course of next day. At the kitchen of my friend's father (an extensive landed proprietor) Burns's visits were of such frequency and duration as to call down the animadversions of the lady of the house, the alertness of her damsels in the morning being at times impaired by his unreasonable gallantry. This was supposed to be occasioned by a penchant he had formed for a certain Nelly Blair, a pretty girl, a servant in the family, and whom he celebrated in more songs and odes than her name appears in--the only one likely to be