THE sun, just glancin thro the trees,
Gave light and joy to ilka grove,
An pleasure in each southern breeze
Awakened hope and slumbering love,
Whan Jenny sung wi hearty glee,
Tae charm her winsome marrow,—
“My bonnie laddie gang wi me,
Weel o'er the braes o Yarrow.”
Young Sandy was the blythest swain
That ever pip'd on brumy brae,
Nae less coud ken him free frae pain,
Sae gracefu, kind, sae fair an gay ;
Whan Jenny sung wi hearty glee,
Tae charm her winsome marrow‑
“My bonnie laddie gang wi me,
Weel o'er the braes o Yarrow.”
He kisst and lov'd the bonnie maid,
Her sparklin een had won his heart ;
Nae lass the youth had e'er betrayed,
Nae fear had she, the lad nae art.
An Jenny sung wi hearty glee,
Tae charm her winsome marrow—
“My bonnie laddie gang wi me,
Weel o'er the braes o Yarrow.”
This song appeared in a volume called “The Goldfinch; or, New Modern Songster of the Most Admired and Favourite Scots and English Songs,” page 196, published by J. & M. Robertson, Saltmarket, Glasgow,—without date. From the paper and printing, we infer it belonged to the period of 1806.—Ed.
Mr. Lamb, in his biographical sketch of the Author, said:—“One evening, at an Anniversary Meeting of the Paisley Burns Club, a relation of the writer of this sketch sat next the Poet. The conversation turned on Scottish song and music, and Tannahill (a very exceptional thing with him under such circumstances) waxed earnest and eloquent, and made his remarks so energetically right and left that the chairman of the club called the little coterie quietly to order.
The meeting of the club referred to by Mr. Lamb was very probably the one held in Mr. Hector's Saracen's Head Inn on 29th January, 1806, at which William Gemmill presided. A copy of the above song in the handwriting of Tannahill, and a letter without date, also in the handwriting of the Poet, addressed to “Mr. James Lamb, Paisley,” was received by the biographer's father, in which Tannahill said—“Looking over a collection of songs the other day, I fell in with the above. It is one of the Anglo-Scottish kind, as Burns calls them. Recollecting that you once wanted it, I have scrawled it down for you.—I am, Sir, yours, R. TANNAHILL.”—There is a pencil jotting on it :— “Feby., 1806.” The manuscript song and letter are now in possession of the family of the late Ex-Provost Brown, Paisley.—Ed.
[Semple 167]