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He streight gaed to Dumblane again,
And back his left did draw, Willie.
Up and warn a', Willie,
Warn, warn a';

Then we to Auchteraider march'd,
To wait a better fa', Willie.

Now if ye spier wha wan the day,
I've tell'd you what I saw, Willie,
We baith did fight and baith did beat,
And baith did rin awa, Willie.
Up and warn a', Willie,
Warn, warn a';

For second-sighted Sandie said,

We'd do nae gude at a', Willie.*

KIRK WAD LET ME BE.

TRADITION, in the western parts of Scotland, tells, that this old song (of which there are still three stanzas extant) once saved a covenanting clergyman out of a scrape. It was a little prior to the revolution, a period when being a Scots covenanter was being a felon, that one of their clergy, who was at that very time hunted by the merciless soldiery, fell in, by accident, with a party of the military. The

* The copy of this song, inserted in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, contains great variations.

soldiers were not exactly acquainted with the person of the reverend gentleman of whom they were in search; but, from some suspicious circumstances, they fancied that they had got one of that cloth and opprobrious persuasion among them in the person of this stranger. "Mass John," to extricate himself, assumed a freedom of manners, very unlike the gloomy strictness of his sect; and among other convivial exhibitions, sung, (and some traditions say, composed on the spur of the occasion) Kirk wad let me be,* with such effect, that the soldiers swore he was a d- -d honest fellow, and that it was impossible he could belong to those hellish conventicles; and so gave him his liberty.

The first stanza of this song, a little altered, is a favorite kind of dramatic interlude acted at country weddings, in the south-west parts of the kingdom. A young fellow is dressed up like an old beggar; a peruke, commonly made of carded tow,

VOL. II.

* I am a poor silly auld man,

And hirpling o'er a tree,

Zet fain, fain kiss wad I,

Gin the kirk wad let me be.

Gin a' my duds were aff

And a' hale claes on,
OI could kiss a zoung lass
As weel as can ony man."

D

represents hoary locks; an old bonnet; a ragged plaid, or surtout, bound with a straw-rope for a girdle; a pair of old shoes, with straw-ropes twisted round his ancles, as is done by shepherds in snowy weather: his face they disguise as like wretched old age as they can: in this plight he is brought into the wedding-house, frequently to the astonishment of strangers who are not in the secret, and begins to sing

"O, I am a silly old man,

My name it is auld Glenae, "*&c.

He is asked to drink, and by and by to dance, which, after some uncouth excuses, he is prevailed on to do, the fiddler playing the tune, which here is commonly called "Auld Glenae;" in short, he is all the time so plied with liquor that he is understood to get intoxicated, and with all the ridiculous gesticulations of an old drunken beggar, he dances and staggers until he falls on the floor; yet still in all his riot, nay in his rolling and tumbling on the floor, with some or other drunken motion of his

* Glenae, on the small river Ae, in Annandale; the seat and designation of an ancient branch, and the present representative, of the gallant but unfortunate Dalziels of Carnwath.-(The Author's note.)

body, he beats time to the music, till at last he is supposed to be carried out dead drunk.

THE BLYTHSOME BRIDAL.

I FIND the Blythsome Bridal in James Watson's Collection of Scots Poems, printed at Edinburgh, in 1706.

This song has humour and a felicity of expression worthy of Ramsay, with even more than his wonted broadness and sprightly language. The Witty Catalogue of Names, with their Historical Epithets, are done in the true Lowland Scottish taste of an age ago, when every householder was nicknamed either from some prominent part of his character, person, or lands and housen, which he rented. Thus-" Skape-fitted Rob." "Thrawnmou'd Rab o' the Dubs." "Roarin Jock i' the Swair." "Slaverin' Simmie o' Todshaw."

ple Kate o' Irongray," &c. &c.

Fy let us all to the bridal,

For there will be lilting there;
For Jockie's to be marry'd to Maggie,
The lass wi' the gauden hair.

"Sou

And there will be lang-kail and pottage,
And bannocks of barley-meal,
And there will be good sawt herring,

To relish a kog of good ale.

Fy let us all to the bridal,

For there will be lilting there,
For Jockie's to be marry'd to Maggie,
The lass with the gauden hair.

And there will be Sandie the sutor,
And Will' with the meikle mow;
And there will be Tam the bluter,'
With Andrew the tinkler, I trow.
And there will be bow-legged Robbie,
With thumbless Katie's goodman;
And there will be blue-cheeked Dowbie,
And Lawrie the laird of the land.
Fy let us all, &c.

And there will be sow-libber Patie,
And plouckie-fac'd Wat i' the mill,
Capper-nos'd Francie, and Gibbie,

That wons in the how of the hill;
And there will be Alaster Sibbie,

Wha in with black Bessy did mool,

With sneevling Lillie, and Tibbie,
The lass that stands aft on the stool. -
Fy let us all, &c.

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