Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Illustrated book of Scottish songs from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century

SONGS OE THE AEPECTIONS. 81
Hae I a joy ? it's a' her ain !
United still her heart and mine ;
They're like the woodbine round the tree,
That's twined till death shall them disjoin.
The author of this beautiful song was the friend and correspondent of Robert
Burns. In his " Epistle to J. Lapraik, an old Scottish bard," dated April 1st, 1785,
Burns pays his predecessor the following fine compliment :
There was ae sang amang the rest,
Aboon them a' it pleased me best,
That some kind husband had addrest
To some sweet wife :
It thirl'd the heart-strings through the breast
A' to the life.
I've scarce heard aught described sae weel,
What gen'rous, manly bosoms feel ;
Thought I, ' Can this be Pope, or Steele,
Or Beattie's wark?'
They told me 'twas an odd kind chiel
About Muirkirk.
It pat me fidgin fain to hear't,
And sae about him there I spiert ;
Then a' that ken't him round declared
He had ingine.
That nane excell'd it, few cam near't.
It was sae fine.
That set him to a pint of ale.
An' either douce or merry tale.
Or rhymes an' sangs he'd made himsel'.
Or witty catches,
'Tween Inverness and Teviotdale
He had few matches.
Then up I gat an' swoor an aith.
Though I should pawn my pleugh an' graith.
Or die a cadger pownie's death
At some dyke-back,
A pint and gill I'd gie them baith
To your crack.
" Lapraik," says Burns, " was a very worthy facetious old fellow, late of Dalfram
near Muirkirk, which little property he was obliged to sell in consequence of some
connexion as security for some persons concerned in that villanous bubble, ' the Ayr
Bank.' He has often told me that he composed this song one day when his wife
had been fretting over their misfortunes." Lapraik died in 1807.