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ANGLO-SCOTTISH SONGS. |
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there. The "Extracts from the accounts of the Lords High Treasurers of Scotland," from the year 1474 to 1642, printed by Mr. Dauney, shew that there were English harpers, lutenists, pipers, and pipers with the drone, or bagpipers, among the musicians at the Scottish Court, besides others under the general name of English minstrels. Among the sweet songs said to be sung by the shepherds in Wedderburn's Complainte of Scotlande, 1549, are several English still extant (one composed by Henry VIII. taking precedence on the list) ; and the religious parodies, such as in Ane Compendious Boolce of Godly and Spirituall Songs, are commonly upon English songs and ballads. English tunes have hitherto been found in every Scottish manuscript that contains any Scotch airs, if written before 1730. There is, I believe, no exception to this rule,—at least I may cite all those I have seen, and the well-authenticated transcripts of others. They include Wood's manuscripts; the Straloch, the Rowallan, and the Skene MSS.; Dr. Leyden's Lyra-viol Book ; the MSS. that were in the possession of the late Andrew Blaikie; Mrs. Agnes Hume's book, and others in the Advocates' Library; those in the possession of Mr. David Laing, and many of minor note. Some of the Scotch manuscripts contain English music exclusively. I have recently analyzed the contents of Hogg's Jacobite Relics of Scotland, and find half the songs in the first volume to have been derived from English printed collections, but if the modern were taken away and only the old suffered to remain, the proportion would be much larger. As Hogg took these songs from Scotch manuscripts, his book shews the extent to which the words of old English songs are still stored in Scotland. The appendix of Jacobite songs, and those of the Whigs at the end of the volume, are almost exclusively from these collections.
Before the publication of Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany, the " Scotch tunes" thai; were popular in England were mostly spurious, and the words adapted to them seem to have been invariably so. Of this I could give many instances, but it may suffice to quote one from A second Tale of a Tub, which being printed in 1715, is within nine years of Ramsay's publication. "Each party call for particular tunes ... the blue bonnets" {i.e., the Scotch) "had very good voices, but being at the furthest end of the room, were not distinctly heard. Yet they split their throats in hollowing out Bonny Dundee, Valiant Jockey, Sawney was a daudy lad, [bonny lad?] and 'Twas within a furlong of Edinborough town"
Bonnie Dundee commences thus:—
" Where gott'st thon the haver-meal bannock ? [oatmeal cake] Blind booby, canst thou not see ? Ise got it out of the Scotchman's wallet," &c.
The subject of the ballad is "Jockey's Escape from Dundee," and it ends, "Adieu o bonny Dundee," from which the tune takes the title of Adew Dundie in the Skene manuscript, and of Bonny Dundee in The Dancing Master, It first appeared in the latter publication in a second appendix to the edition of 1686, printed in 1688. "Valiant Jockey's march'd away," and "'Twas within a |
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