VI. But beauty how frail and how fleeting, Awa wi' your belles and your beauties, Has met wi' the queen o' the fair. Mr. Clarke begs you to give Miss Phillis a corner in your book, as she is a particular flame of his. She is a Miss P. M., sister to "Bonnie Jean." They are both pupils of his. You shall hear from me, the very first grist I get from my rhyming-mill. [The first of these songs, "Whistle, and I'll come to thee, my lad,” is founded on some old lines to the same air, which the Poet has wrought into the first verse. The early strain was once popular in Nithsdale: it had several variations, nor is that of Burns without them : "O whistle, and I'll come to thee, my jo, O whistle, and I'll come to thee, my jo: Though father and mother and a' should say no, O whistle, and I'll come to thee, my jo.” - From one of the variations it appears that the name of the heroine was Jeanie : "Though father and mother and a' should gae mad, Thy Jeanie will venture wi' thee, my lad." Who the lady was, no one has told us: Jeanies abounded in the district: some of them were eminently beautiful; yet none, save one, was likely to countenance a lover who made his appearance under the cloud of night and courted concealment. The other song, Adown winding Nith I did wander," is not indebted to old verses for either its sentiments or its character. The young lady who inspired it was Phillis M'Murdo, afterwards Mrs. Norman Lockhart of Carnwath. "This song," says Currie, "though certainly beautiful, would appear to more advantage without the chorus, as is indeed the case with several other songs of our author." The chorus seems no encumbrance in this instance: it maintains the leading sentiment, and, in singing, enables the other voices to take a share, and give additional emphasis to the praise bestowed on this Nithsdale beauty. The former editors of Burns seem to have disliked choruses greatly: they are sometimes omitted, though the song cannot be sung without them. It is true that the chorus seldom carries on the story: but then that is not its object: it enables the company to take a share in the entertainment, and no one need be told with what effect two or three well-tuned voices take up the o'erword at the end of each verse.-ED.] No. XXXVI. BURNS TO G. THOMSON. August, 1793. THAT tune," Cauld Kail," is such a favourite of yours, that I once more roved out yesterday for a gloamin-shot at the muses when the muse that presides o'er the shores of Nith, or rather my old inspiring dearest nymph, Coila, whispered me the following. I have two reasons for thinking that it was my early, sweet simple inspirer that was by my elbow, "smooth gliding without step," and pouring the song on my glowing fancy. In the first place, since I left Coila's native haunts, not a fragment of a poet has arisen to cheer her solitary musings, by catching inspiration from her; so I more than suspect that she has followed me hither, or at least makes me occasional visits: secondly, the last stanza of this song I send you is the very words that Coila taught me many years ago, and which I set to an old Scots reel in Johnson's Museum. [Gloamin-twilight. A beautiful poetic word which ought to be adopted in England. A gloamin-shot, a twilight interview.-CURRIE.] VOL. V. I COME, LET ME TAKE THEE. Air-" Cauld Kail.” I. Come, let me take thee to my breast, II. Thus in my arms, wi' a' thy charms, And by thy een, sae bonnie blue, your If you think the above will suit your idea of favourite air, I shall be highly pleased. "The last time I came o'er the moor" I cannot meddle with as to mending it; and the musical world have been so long accustomed to Ramsay's words, that a different song, though positively superior, would not be so well received. I am not fond of choruses to songs, so I have not made one for the foregoing. [The voice of tradition may often be listened to, yet not in all things trusted: the legends of the Vale of Nith say that the heroine of "Come let me take thee to my heart," was Jean Lorimer; but this wants confirmation. Burns was so much under the influence of beauty that he is never supposed to sing without some living fair one in his mind; and, as the "Lass of Craigieburn" was far from coy, popular belief has seated her beside the Poet, and inspired him with her blue eyes and rosy lips. Be this as it may, it is quite evident that nothing is borrowed from the old words of the air to which the song is adapted. "Cauld kail in Aberdeen, and castocks in Strabogie," have no connexion with the ecstasy of such lines as these : "Thus in my arms, wi' a' thy charms, I clasp my countless treasure; |