To leave thee behind me my heart is sair pain'd; Then glory, my Jeanie, maun plead my excuse; The exquisite melody to which this song is sung has rendered it a general favourite. Its effect upon the mind of Highlanders in a foreign land, or in emigration, is sometimes painful, and has been known to melt the roughest and rudest of men to tears. The song itself, as a literary composition, is of little or no merit. It first appeared in the "Tea-Table Miscellany," 1724. The air was originally entitled "King James's march to Ireland." O Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, They biggit a bower on yon burn-brae, And theekit it ower wi' rashes. Bessie Bell I lo'ed yestreen, Bessie's hair's like a lint-tap, She smiles like a May mornin', Mary's locks are like the craw, She blooming, tight, and tall is, Young Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, Our fancies jee between ye twa, Ye are sic bonnie lasses. Wae's me! for baith I canna get, To ane by law we're stentit; And be wi' ane contentit. The heroines of this well-known ballad were the daughters of two Perthshire gentlemen. Bessy Bell was the daughter of the Laird of Kinnaird, and Mary Gray of the Laird of Lynedoch. A romantic attachment subsisted between them, and they retired together to a secluded spot called the "Burn Braes," in the neighbourhood of Lynedoch, to avoid the plague that then raged in Perth, Dundee, and other towns. They caught the infection, however, and both died. Tradition asserts that a young gentleman, in love with one of them, visited them in their solitude, and that it was from him they caught the contagion. The late gallant Lord Lynedoch, on whose estate the heroines lie buried, erected a kind of bower over their graves. The fol lowing is the original ballad on which Allan Ramsay's is founded. The melody to which it is sung was introduced by Gay into the "Beggars' Opera," to the words commencing: "A curse attends that woman's love Who always would be pleasing." O Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, They were twa bonnie lasses; They thought to lie in Methven kirkyard But they maun lie in Stronach Haugh And Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, They were twa bonnie lasses; THE LAST TIME I CAM' O'ER THE MUIR. ALLAN RAMSAY. THE last time I cam' ower the muir, I left my love behind me : Ye powers, what pains do I endure The beaming day ensuing, We stray'd beside yon wand'ring stream, And talk'd with hearts o'erflowing, Until the sun's last setting beam Was in the ocean glowing. I pitied all beneath the skies, Even kings, when she was nigh me; In raptures I beheld her eyes, Which could but ill deny me. Should I be call'd where cannons roar, Shall make my cares at distance move, In all my soul there's not one place Since she excels in ev'ry grace, In her my love shall centre. The neist time I gang ower the muir, And that my faith is firm and pure, There, while my being does remain, My love more fresh shall blossom. "The first lines of this song, and several others in it, are beautiful; but in my opinion-pardon me, revered shade of Ramsay!-the song is unworthy of the divine air."-BURNS. PEGGIE AND PATIE. ALLAN RAMSAY. PEGGY. WHEN first my dear laddie gae'd to the green hill, PATIE. When corn-riggs waved yellow, and blue heather-bells PEGGY. When thou ran, or wrestled, or putted the stane, PATIE. Our Jenny sings saftly the "Cowden-Broom-Knowes," With "Through the wood, laddie," Bess gars our lugs ring But when my dear Peggy sings, with better skill, The "Boatman," "Tweedsdale," or the "Lass o' the Mill," 'Tis many times sweeter and pleasing to me; For though they sing nicely, they cannot like thee." PEGGY. How easy can lasses trow what they desire, THE YELLOW-HAIR'D LADDIE. ALLAN RAMSAY. IN April, when primroses paint the sweet plain, The yellow-hair'd laddie would oftentimes go To woods and deep glens where the hawthorn-trees grow. There under the shade of an old sacred thorn He sung with so soft and enchanting a sound, That silvans and fairies, unseen, danced around. |