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viii. JACOBITE 465 |
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kettles and other musical instruments of a like sort. He was condemned and beheaded on February 24, 1716.
*No. 283. When we gaed to the braes o' Mar. Scots Musical Museum, 1788, No. 188. The MS. is in the British Museum. In the Interleaved Museum Burns describes how he obtained the verses, as follows: ' This edition of the song I got from Tom Niel, of facetious fame in Edinburgh. The expression " Up and warn a' Willie " alludes to the Crantara, or warning of a Highland clan to arms. Not understanding this, the Lowlanders of the west and south say,'' Up and waur them a','" &c. It is now Impossible to discover what alterations or amendments Burns made, but the verses in the text contain many variations from the original song of seven stanzas in The Charmer, 1752, i. 61, signed 'B. G.'; of which the following is the first stanza:—
' When we went to the field of war, And to the weaponshaw, Willy, With true design to stand our ground,
And chase our faes awa, Willy; Lairds and lords came there bedeen, And vow gin they were pra*, Willy, Up and war 'em a', Willy; War 'em a', war 'em a', Willy.'
The song belongs to the Rebellion of 1715, and is one of the Sheriffmuir satires, in which both sides are treated in an Impartial manner.
The tune is in the Caledonian Pocket Companion, 1751, I'll. 1; Bremner's Reels, 1759, 60; McLean's Scots Tunes, c. 1772, 20; and in Johnson's Museum, 1788, as in the text. It contains the 'Scotch snap' in its best form so inordinately imitated by foreign composers.
No. 284. Here's a health, to them that's awa. Partly in Cromek's R cliques, 1808, 429, entitled Song: patriotic-unfinished. MS. in the British Museum. Written when Burns had the Revolutionary fever about the end of 1792, and sent to Captain William Johnston, the editor of the new Edinburgh Gazetteer, who had started the periodical on ' progressive' principles. Johnston was subsequently charged with a treasonable conspiracy, and Imprisoned. At this time Burns was suspected of holding opinions hostile to the Constitution, and it was alleged that he had proposed the following toast at a public meeting—' Here's the last verse of the last chapter of the last Book of Kings.'
Here's a health to them that's awa is founded on a Jacobite ballad of which Hogg has a copy in Jacobite Reliques, 1819, i.jo. The tune does not appear to have been printed before being set to a stanza of the ballad contributed by Burns to the Scots Musical Museum, 1796, No. 412, The music resembles that of song No. 282.
No. 285. Wha in a brulzie. Scots Musical Museum, 1796, No. ^7/. The MS. is in the British Museum. Framed on a seventeenth century ballad which may be seen vajacobite Relics, 1819, i. 20. Hogg got it probably from Myln's manuscript. It is a trenchant satire on the Whigs and Covenanters, reputably written by Lord Newbottle in 1688. He was a professional politician, who believed that it was necessary for him to live, and acted on the principle that—
'A merciful Providence fashioned us holler A purpose that we might our principles swaller.'
He changed from Whig to Tory, was made a Chief Justice, and Lord High Commissioner of the Kirk he had reviled. He died the first Marquis of Lothian. He sketches and satirizes in his ballad about forty of the principal
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