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

280 SONGS OF SCOTLAND.
And surely ye '11 be your pint-stoup,
And surely I '11 be mine ;
And we '11 tak' a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
For auld lang syne, &c.
WALY, WALY.
The song now to be introduced is one of the most beautiful and
affecting in the whole range of the national minstrelsy. There
appears no room to doubt that it forms part of a ballad composed
upon an unhappy incident in the history of the great family of
Douglas. James the second marquis, of the time of Charles II.,
was no very competent supporter of the credit and dignity of the
line. There seems to have been an inclination on his part at
one time to wed the daughter of 'Widow Jack, a taverner at
Perth ;' but he subsequently (September 1670) took to wife the
Lady Barbara Erskine, daughter of the ninth Earl of Marr.
Owing, there can be little doubt, to his lordship's unworthy
conduct, the alliance was productive of misery to the lady. She
had even to bewail that her own honour was brought into
question, chiefly, it would appear, through the influence of a
chamberlain over her husband's mind. At length a separation
with a suitable provision left her in the worst kind of widow-
hood, after she had brought the marquis one son (subsequently
first commander of the Cameronian regiment, and who fell at
the battle of Steenkirk). The verses are the lament of the
unfortunate marchioness after the separation, and seems to have
formed part of a ballad reciting her unfortunate case, and which
has latterly been recovered.