Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Songs of Scotland prior to Burns

178 SONGS OF SCOTLAND.
Meantime, far hind out ower the lee,
Fu' snug in a glen, where nane could see,
The twa, with kindly sport and glee,
Cut frae a new cheese a whang.
The prievin' was guid — it pleased them baith ;
To lo'e her for aye he gae her his aith ;
Quo' she, To leave thee I will be laith,
My winsome gaberlunyie man.
O, tend my minnie I were wi' you,
Ill-faurdly wad she crook her mou' ;
Sic a puir man she '11 never trow,
After the gaberlunyie man.
My dear, quo' he, ye 're yet ower young,
And ha'na learn'd the beggars' tongue,
To follow me frae toun to toun,
And carry the gaberlunyie on.
Wi' cauk and keel I '11 win your bread,
And spinles and whorles for them wha need ;
Whilk is a gentle trade indeed,
To carry the gaberlunyie on.
I '11 bow my leg, and crook my knee,
And draw a black clout ower my e'e ;
A cripple and blind they will ca' me,
While we '11 be merry and sing.
The Gaberhmyie, and the eight preceding songs, have some
common characters deserving of attention. They are all clever
compositions, verifying themselves as the product, not of rustic,
but of cultivated minds. They display humour both of a rough
and hearty, and of* a sly kind. They have all come before the
world anonymously, and for the most part can be traced to the
early part of the eighteenth century — the epoch just preceding
that of Eamsay. Being greatly superior to Ramsay's poetry, it is
the more remarkable that there should be no trace of the authors,