BESS AND HER SPINNING-WHEEL. TUNE-The Sweet Lass that Lo'es me. O leeze me on my spinning-wheel, comfortably wraps-soft low Alike to screen the birdie's nest, And little fishes' caller rest: The sun blinks kindly in the biel', Where blithe I turn my spinning-wheel. On lofty aiks the cushats wail, O wha wad leave this humble state, cool wood-pigeons linnets landrail NITHSDALE'S WELCOME HAME. [Written when Lady Winifred Maxwell, the descendant of the forfeited Earl of Nithsdale, returned to Scotland and rebuilt Terregles House, in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright. Captain Riddel of Glenriddel furnished the air to which Burns composed the verses.] The noble Maxwells and their powers Are coming o'er the Border, And they'll gae bigg Terregles towers, 'O thoughtless lassie, life's a faught; A hungry care 's an unco care. Keep mind that ye maun drink the yill.' 'O gear will buy me rigs o' land, wisest way FAIR ELIZA, [Burns composed this song to a Highland air which he found in Macdonald's collection. In the original manuscript, the name of the heroine is Rabina, which he is understood to have afterwards changed to Eliza, for reasons of taste. Mr Stenhouse relates, that the verses were designed to embody the passion of a Mr Hunter, a friend of the poet, towards a Rabina of real life, who, it would appear, was loved in vain, for the lover went to the West Indies, and there died soon after his arrival.] Not the bee upon the blossom, All beneath the simmer moon: Kens the pleasure, feels the rapture O LUVE WILL VENTURE IN. TUNE-The Posie. O luve will venture in where it daurna weel be seen; The primrose I will pu', the firstling o' the year, For she's the pink o' womankind, and blooms without a peer— I'll pu' the budding rose, when Phoebus peeps in view, The lily it is pure, and the lily it is fair, The hawthorn I will pu' wi' its locks o' siller gray, The woodbine I will pu' when the e'ening-star is near, I'll tie the posie round wi' the silken band o' luve, THE BANKS OF DOON. TUNE-Caledonian Hunt's Delight, Ye banks and braes o' bonny Doon, Thou 'lt break my heart, thou warbling bird, Departed-never to return! Aft hae I roved by bonny Doon, To see the rose and woodbine twine; But ah! he left the thorn wi' me. This, it will be observed, is a second version of the ballad which Burns produced in 1787 upon the sad fate of Miss Peggy KAlthough none of Burns's songs has been more popular than this, one cannot but regret its superseding so entirely the original ballad, which in touching simplicity of expression is certainly much superior. WILLIE WASTLE. TUNE-The Eight Men of Moidart. Willie Wastle dwalt on Tweed, The spot they called it Linkum-doddie; Could stown a clew wi' ony bodie. Oh, Tinkler Madgie was her mither Sic a wife as Willie had, I wadna gie a button for her. She has an e'e-she has but ane, The cat has twa the very colour; A clapper-tongue wad deave a miller: I wadna gie a button for her. hard |