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

SONGS OP THE AFFECTIONS. 139
Scenes of woe and scenes of pleasure,
Scenes that former thoughts renew,
Scenes of woe and scenes of pleasure.
Now a sad and last adieu !
The following particulars regarding this song are given hy Mr. Starke in the life
of the author in the " Biographica Scotica," Edinburgh, 1805: " One of Mr. Gall's
songs in particular, the original manuscript of which I have by me, has acquired a
high degree of praise, from its having been printed among the works of Burns, and
generally thought the production of that poet. The reverse, indeed, was only known
to a few of Mr. Gall's friends, to whom he communicated the verses before they were
published. The fame of Burns stands in no need of the aid of others to support it;
and to render back the song in question to its true author, is but an act of distributive
justice due alike to both these departed poets, whose ears are now equally insensible
to the incense of flattery or the slanders of malevolence. At the time when the
' Scots Musical Museum' was published at Edinburgh by Mr. Johnson, several of
Burns's songs made their appearance in that publication. Mr. Gall wrote the song
entitled ' A Farewell to Ayrshire,' prefixed Burns's name to it, and sent it anony-
mously to the publisher of that work. From thence it has been copied into the later
editions of the works of Burns. In publishing the song in this manner, Mr. Gall
probably thought that it might, under the sanction of a name known to the world,
acquii-e some notice, while in other circumstances its fate might have been ' to waste
its sweetness on the desert air.' " Neither Mr. Gall nor his biographer seem to have
reflected upon the dishonesty of the proceeding towards the public, and of the gross
unfairness towards the greater poet, whose name was used.
LOGAN BRAES.
John Mayne,* author of the " Siller Gun." Fixst printed in the " Star"
newspaper, 1789. Air — " Logan water."
'' By Logan's streams, that rin sae deep,
Fu' aft wi' glee I've herded sheep —
Herded sheep, or gather'd slaes,
Wi' my dear lad on Logan braes.
But wae's my heart ! thae days are gane.
And I wi' grief may herd alane ;
While my dear lad maun face his faes
Far, far frae me an' Logan braes.
Nae mair at Logan kirk will he
Atween the preachings meet wi' me —
Meet wi' me, or when its mirk
Convoy me hame frae Logan kirk.
John Mayne, formerly editor of the " Stai" newspaper, died in the year 1836.