BURNS MS. MANUSCRIPT NOTES IN AN INTERLEAVED COPY OF THE FIRST FOUR VOLUMES OF THE SCOTS MUSICAL MUSEUM The numbers, titles, and first lines within brackets refer to the engraved songs in the Collection. I. WRITTEN BY ROBERT BURNS VOLUME I [No. I. The Highland Queen. No more my song shall be, ye swains, To celebrate my Highland Queen, &c.] 'The Highland Queen, music and poetry, was com posed by a Mr. McVicar, purser of the Solbay man of This I had from Dr. Blacklock.-R. B.' war. [No. 4. Bess the gawkie. " This Blyth young Bess to Jean did say, Will ye gang to yon sunny brae, Where flocks do feed and herds do stray, And sport awhile wi' Jamie! &c.] song shews that the Scotish Muses did not all leave us when we lost Ramsay and Oswald, as I have B good reason to believe that the verses and music are both posterior to the days of these two gentlemen. It is a beautiful song and in the genuine Scots taste. We have few pastoral compositions, I mean, which are the pastoral of Nature, that are equal to this.-R. B.' [No. 5. Oh! open the door, Lord Gregory, The rain rains on my scarlet robes, The dew drops o'er my chin, &c.] 'It is somewhat singular, that in Lanark, Renfrew, Ayr, Wigton, Kirkcudbright, and Dumfries-shires, there is scarcely one old song or tune which, from the title, &c., can be guessed to belong to, or be the production of these countries. This, I conjecture, is one of these very few; as the ballad, which is a long one, is called both by tradition and in printed collections, The Lass o' Lochroyan, which I take to be Lochroyan in Galloway.-R. B.' [No. 6. The Banks of the Tweed. To the soft murmuring stream I will sing of my love, To indulge a fond passion for Jockey my dear; 'This song is one of the many attempts that English composers have made to imitate the Scotish manner, and which I shall, in these strictures, beg leave to distinguish by the appellation of Anglo-Scotish productions. The music is pretty good, but the verses are just above contempt.-R. B.' |