Broadside ballad entitled 'Leader-Haughs and Yarow'

Commentary

This ballad begins: 'When Phoebus bright, the Azure Skies / with golden Rayes enlightneth, / These things sublunar he espies, / Herbs Trees and plants, be quick'neth'. No publication date is given. It is to be sung to its own tune.

This sheet also includes a further part, entitled 'The Words of Burn the Violer'. Today, this would be termed, 'violinist'. This piece begins, 'WHat? shall my Viol silent be, / or leave her wonted Scriding? / But choise some sadder Elogie, no Sports and Mirds deriding.' This song is also about the beauty of the Yarrow Valley.

The Ettrick and Yarrow Valleys are in the Scottish Borders, near Selkirk. Ettrick Forest has long been famed as an area of outstanding natural beauty and its contribution to Scotland's culture and literature has been enormous. William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, the Black Douglases, pillaging Border Reivers and fugitive Covenanters knew the valleys and their forests well.

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