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

GREEN GROW THE RASHES. 231
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irash-es, 0, Green grow the rash-es, 0, The sweet -est hours that
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e'er I spent, Were spent a - mang the kss - es, 0.
A song of the kind which once passed current amongst inno-
cent people, but would now be utterly condemned by the same
class, has existed from old times, with a refrain beginning —
Green grow the rashes, O,
Green grow the rashes, 0.
In our wish to convey at least the air, we are driven to the
expedient of presenting it in connection with two of the verses of
a comic song written for the same air by Burns :
Green grow the rashes, O,
Green grow the rashes, O,
The sweetest hours that e'er I spent,
Were spent amang the lasses, O.
Auld nature swears the lovely dears
Her noblest works she classes, ;
Her 'prentice hand she tried on man,
And then she made the lasses, 0.
The tune is one of the oldest which have been handed down
to us. A manuscript broadside political song of the reign of
William and Mary, containing the following verse :
But let them say and do on,
But let them say and do on,
Our kirk, that had no head before,
Has now a he and she one —
is to the tune of Green Groiv the Rashes. 1 The tune, however,
1 Wodrow Pamphlets, Adv. Lib. Edin.