Perthshire in bygone days

578 PEKTHSHIRE IN BYGONE DAYS.
" an' your head war sair Jamie,
an' your head war sair ;
I'd tak' the napkin frae my neck,
And tie doun your yellow hair,"
" I ha'e nae wife at a' Jeanie,
1 ha'e nae wife at a',
I ha'e neither wife nor banns three,
To try thy heart was a'.
" Blair in Athol 's mine Jeanie,
Blah - in Athol 's mine ;
Bonnie Dunkel' is whaur I dwell,
And the boats o' Garry's mine.
" Huntingtower is mine Jeanie,
Huntingtower is mine,
Huntingtower and Balnagower,
And Logierait is mine."
Every lover of our old Scottish lyrics must regret that so
little has been recorded of this very interesting ballad. Mr.
Kinloch states that he took his copy from the recitation of
an idiot boy at Wishaw ; but it has been hovering, with
little variation, about Perthshire for many years. Half-a-
century ago I made a pilgrimage to Dunsinane to hear it
sung by a domestic of the late Mr. Meliss Nairne, who
had the air and words completely at her command, but
had no feeling for its plaintive story. Twenty years after-
wards I had the pleasure of hearing it sung by the late
Mr. "William De la Eue, of London, in such a way as only
an accomplished amateur could do it — every note of the
lovely air, and every word of the finished lyric, distinctly
but tenderly enunciated. In Mr. Kinloch's set the verse
beginning " Huntingtower is mine," does not appear,
which injures the dramatic equality and gives too great a
preponderance to the dark side of the picture. It was not
enough to tell the lady that he had engaged and then
cast off, that after all he would marry her ; he must show
that he had a sort of right to put her so cruelly to the
test. In the tragedy of " Macbeth " young Malcolm
denounces himself to try the fealty of Macduff, and the
young duke tried Jeanie's love for him by a similar ques-
tionable ruse. She came out of the crucible like refined
gold, loving but resigned. She did not scruple to pronounce
a woe on his false tongue and the barbarous inconsistency
of his conduct, in promising to marry her while he had a
wife at home ; but burst forth in accents of undiminished
affection, declaring her readiness to assist him in his day