EPPIE M'NAB. THE old song, with this title, has more wit than decency. WHA IS THAT AT MY BOWER DOOR. THIS tune is also known by the name of Lass an I come near thee. The words are mine. Wha is that at my bower door? What mak ye sae like a thief? O come and see, quo' Findlay ;- Gif I rise and let you in? Let me in, quo' Findlay ; Ye'll keep me waukin wi' your din; In my bower if ye should stay? Here this night if ye remain? Mr. Gilbert Burns told the Editor that this song was suggested to his brother by the 'Auld Man's Address to the Widow, printed in Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany, which the Poet first heard sung before he had seen that Collection, by a Jean Wilson, a silly old widow-woman, then living at Tarbolton, remarkable for the simplicity and naïveté of her character, and for singing old Scotch songs with a peculiar energy and earnestness of manner. Having outlived her family, she still retained the form of family worship: and before she sung a hymn, she would gravely give out the first line of the verse as if she had a numerous au · dience, to the great diversion of her listening neighbours. THOU ART GANE AWA. THIS tune is the same with, Haud awa frae me, Donald. THE TEARS I SHED MUST EVER FALL. THIS song was composed by Miss Cranston.*It wanted four lines to make all the stanzas suit the music, which I added, and are the four first of the last stanza. The tears I shed must ever fall; And parted lovers meet again. Their toils are past, their sorrows o'er, This lady is now married to Professor Dugald Stewart, of Edinburgh. OF THE VERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 185 Though boundless oceans roll between, But bitter, bitter is the tear Of her who slighted love bewails, In vain does memory renew The scenes once ting'd in transport's dye; No heart! No cold approach, no alter'd mien, The tears I shed must ever fall. THE BONIE WEE THING.; COMPOSED on my little idol," The charming, lovely Davies." Bonie wee thing, canie wee thing, I wad wear thee in my bosom, Wishfully I look and languish, In that bonie face of thine; |