O GUID ALE COMES.

O guid ale comes, and guid ale goes,
Guid ale gars me sell my hose,
Sell my hose and pawn my shoon;
Guid ale keeps my heart aboon.

I had sax owsen in a pleugh,
They drew a' weel encugh,
I selt them a' just ane by ane;
Guid ale keeps my heart aboon.

ROBIN SHURE IN HAIRST.

CHORUS.

Robin shure in hairst,

I shure wi' him;

Fient a heuk had I,
Yet I stack by him.

I gaed up to Dunse,

To warp a wab o' plaiden;

At his daddie's yett,

Wha met me but Robin?

Was na Robin bauld,

Though I was a cotter,

Played me sic a trick,

And me the eller's dochter?

Robin promised me

A' my winter vittle;

Fient hae't he had but three

Goose feathers and a whittle.

SWEETEST MAY.

Sweetest May, let love inspire thee;
Take a heart which he desires thee;
As thy constant slave regard it;
For its faith and truth reward it.

Proof o' shot to birth or money,
Not the wealthy but the bonny;
Not high-born, but noble-minded,
In love's silken band can bind it.

THERE WAS A BONNY LASS.

There was a bonny lass, and a bonny, bonny lass,
And she lo'ed her bonny laddie dear,

Till war's loud alarms tore her laddie frae her arms,
Wi' monie a sigh and a tear.

Over sea, over shore, where the cannons loudly roar,
He still was a stranger to fear;

And nought could him quail, or his bosom assail,
But the bonny lass he lo'ed sae dear.

['The first verse of this song is old; the second was written by Burns.'-STENHOUSE.]

NOTES TO JOHNSON'S SCOTS MUSICAL MUSEUM.

[In the latter part of his life, Burns procured an interleaved copy of Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, for the purpose of concentrating in that place his remarks on Scottish songs and airs, and all that he knew of their authors. The copy thus annotated he presented to Captain Riddel of Glenriddel, whose niece, Eliza Bayley, of Manchester, latterly possessed it. Most of the notes are merely indications of an author's name, or of a simple fact respecting the locality or origin of the song. Such of them as possess any general interest are here presented.]

O OPEN THE DOOR, LORD GREGORY.

It is somewhat singular, that in Lanark, Renfrew, Ayr, Wigton, Kirkcudbright, and Dumfries shires, there is scarcely an old song or tune which, from the title, &c., can be guessed to belong to, or be the production of, these counties. This, I conjecture, is one of these very few; as the ballad, which is a long one, is called, both by tradition and in printed collections, The Lass of Lochryan, which I take to be Lochryan, in Galloway.

CLOUT THE CALDRON.

A tradition is mentioned in the Bee, that the second Bishop Chisholm of Dumblane, used to say, that if he were going to be hanged, nothing would soothe his mind so much by the way as to hear Clout the Caldron played.

I have met with another tradition, that the old song to this tune

Hae ye ony pots or pans,

Or ony broken chanlers?

was composed on one of the Kenmure family, in the cavalier times, and alluded to an amour he had, while under hiding, in the disguise of an itinerant tinker. The air is also known by the name of The Blacksmith and his Apron, which, from the rhythm, seems to have been a line of some old song to the tune.

THERE WAS A BONNY LASS.

There was a bonny lass, and a bonny, bonny lass,
And she lo'ed her bonny laddie dear,

Till war's loud alarms tore her laddie frae her arms,
Wi' monie a sigh and a tear.

Over sea, over shore, where the cannons loudly roar,
He still was a stranger to fear;

And nought could him quail, or his bosom assail,
But the bonny lass he lo'ed sae dear.

Waefu' want and hunger fley me,

Glowrin' by the hallan en';

Sair I fecht them at the door,

But aye I'm eerie they come ben.

['The first verse of this song is old; the second was written by Burns.'-STENHOUSE.]

NOTES TO JOHNSON'S SCOTS MUSICAL MUSEUM.

[In the latter part of his life, Burns procured an interleaved copy of Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, for the purpose of concentrating in that place his remarks on Scottish songs and airs, and all that he knew of their authors. The copy thus annotated he presented to Captain Riddel of Glenriddel, whose niece, Eliza Bayley, of Manchester, latterly possessed it. Most of the notes are merely indications of an author's name, or of a simple fact respecting the locality or origin of the song. Such of them as possess any general interest are here presented.]

O OPEN THE DOOR, LORD GREGOR Y.

It is somewhat singular, that in Lanark, Renfrew, Ayr, Wigton, Kirkcudbright, and Dumfries shires, there is scarcely an old song or tune which, from the title, &c., can be guessed to belong to, or be the production of, these counties. This, I conjecture, is one of these very few; as the ballad, which is a long one, is called, both by tradition and in printed collections, The Lass of Lochryan, which I take to be Lochryan, in Galloway.

CLOUT THE CALDRON.

A tradition is mentioned in the Bee, that the second Bishop Chisholm of Dumblane, used to say, that if he were going to be hanged, nothing would soothe his mind so much by the way as to hear Clout the Caldron played.

I have met with another tradition, that the old song to this tune

Hae ye ony pots or pans,

Or ony broken chanlers?

was composed on one of the Kenmure family, in the cavalier times, and alluded to an amour he had, while under hiding, in the disguise of an itinerant tinker. The air is also known by the name of The Blacksmith and his Apron, which, from the rhythm, seems to have been a line of some old song to the tune.