Glen Collection of printed music > Printed music > Popular songs of Scotland with their appropriate melodies

OH! WHY LEFT I MY HAME?
347
poco rail.
^
m
^
blink'
my
jgg=i=&=a
£g , te5 =j 5
The palm-tree waveth high,
And fair the myrtle springs,
And to the Indian maid
The bulbul sweetly sings ;
But I dinna see the broom,
Wi' its tassels on the lea,
Nor hear the lintie's 2 sang
0' my ain countrie.
Oh ! here no Sabbath-bell
Awakes the Sabbath morn,
Nor song of reapers heard
Amang the yellow corn :
For the tyrant's voice is here,
And the wail of slaverie ;
But the sun of freedom shines
In my ain countrie.
There's a hope for every woe,
And a balm for every pain,
But the first joys of our heart
Come never back again.
There's a track upon the deep.
And a path across the sea,
But the weary ne'er return
To their ain countrie.
1 Glimpse.
2 Linnet.
"Oh ! why left I my hame?" In Johnson's Museum, vol. ii. No. 115, we find a tune called "The Low-
lands of Holland, " which remarkably resembles the tune here set to Mr. R. Gilfillan's words. Mr. Sten-
house says it was published by James Oswald in 1742, and was ascribed to him by his sister and daughter ;
but Mr. Stenhouse erred in making that statement, for the tune in Oswald's Second Collection is totally
unlike that in Johnson. The original of Oswald's air is evidently No 17 of the Skene MS., a fact which
demolishes his claim to the tune and his untrustworthiness, if he led his relatives to believe it to be his
own composition. Johnson's air was altered into its present form by Mr. Peter Macleod, a musical
amateur of Edinburgh. His compositions were numerous ; one of the most popular being "Scotland yet,"
from the profits of which he placed a parapet and railing round the monument of Burns on the Calton
Hill, Edinburgh.
A' 1 Ii ■.,' krltrz,
64
'
<£W
■