IHAD A HORSE. I HAD a horse, and I had nae mair, My purse was light, and my heart was sair, I wrote a letter, and thus began: I'm owre the lugs in love wi' you, She read my letter, and she leugh;" And made John Goukston o' the laird, Then she pat siller in my purse, Since I cam frae my daddie; Then she pat me behint a chair, And hap'd me wi' a plaidie; Where I lay like to swarf wi' fear, I promis'd, but I ne'er gade back FAREWELL TO AYRSHIRE. SCENES of wo, and scenes of pleasure, Bonnie Doon, sae sweet at gloaming, Bowers, adieu! whare love decoying, Then the stroke, O how severe ! "This story was founded on fact. A JOHN Hunter, ancestor to a very respectable farming family who live in a place in the parish, I think, of Galston, called Barr-mill, was the luckless hero that "had a horse and had nae mair."-For some little youthful follies, he found it necessary to make a retreat to the West-Highlands, where "he fee'd himself to a Highland Laird,” for that is the expression of all the oral editions of the song I ever heard. The present Mr. HUNTER, who told me the anecdote, is the great grand-child to our hero."-Burns. Friends, that parting tear reserve it, Scenes of wo, and scenes of pleasure, * This song, written by Mr. RICHARD GALL, a Printer in Edinburgh, but now dead, "has acquired a high degree of praise, from its having been printed amongst the works of BURNS, and generally thought the production of that poet. The reverse, indeed, was only known to a few of Mr. GALL's friends, to whom he communicated the verses before they were published. The fame of BURNS stands in no need of the aid of others to support it; and to render back the song in question to its true author, is but an act of distributive justice, due alike to both these departed poets, whose ears are now equally insensible to the incense of flattery, or the slanders of malevolence. At the time when the Scots Musical Museum was published at Edinburgh by Mr. JOHNSON, several of BURNS's songs made their appearance in that publication. Mr. GALL wrote this song, intitled-Farewell to Ayrshire, prefixed BURNS's name to it, and sent it anonymously to the Publisher of that work. From thence it has been copied into the later editions of the works of BURNS. In publishing the song in this manner, Mr. GALL probably thought that it might, under the sanction of a name known to the world, acquire that notice, which, in other circumstances, might have made its fate to be to waste its sweetness in the desert air.'" -At the time the first No. of this work went to press, the Editor was not aware that Mr. GALL was also the author of My only Jo and Dearie, O, though he has since learned that this was the case. Should the reader wish to obtain any further particulars respecting Mr. GALL, he may consult the Biographia Scotica, whence the above information is derived. L AH! WAES ME, LOV'D JEANIE. TUNE-" Robin Adair." AH! wae's me, lov'd Jeanie, thou'rt now frae me torn; And deeply mourn. Thy death, sweetest maid! writhes my bosom wi' pain; A true-love sae fondly I'll ne'er meet again; Since thou art frae me fled, And thus sae lonely laid, Wi' tears thy tomb, lov'd maid! Yes, since thou art lonely laid low in that bed, A lone tear to let fa' Ye sangsters that chant in Glen-Dawin, sweet glen! A soothing warble raise, In plaintive strain. Ye sprightly young maidens, sae gaudy and braw, In pensive mournfu' key, Tears sad let fa'. For never again while the sun gilds the morn, THE TURNIMSPIKE. HERSEL pe Highland shentleman, First when her to the Lowlands cam, Nainsel did wear the philapeg, The plaid prik't on her shouder; But for whereas these cursed preeks, This song is by the author of The Banks of Glaizart, and My Mary, O. It was written for a young friend of the author's on the death of his sweetheart. Glen Dawin, mentioned in the 4th verse, is a small romantic glen adjoining that of the Clachan, for which the reader may consult the note on The Banks of Glaizart, page 44. |