Glen Collection of printed music > Printed music > Songs of Robert Burns

456
HISTORICAL NOTES
Sanqnliar, 'Black Joan.' The candidates were the sitting Tory member. Sir
James Johnston, of Wester-hall — the ' belted knight,' and Captain Patrick
Miller — the ' Soger Youth ' — son of Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, Burns's land-
lord. As will be seen elsewhere Burns actively supported the Tory side,
chiefly because ' Old Q,' the notorious Duke of Queensberry, assisted the Whigs.
On December 9, 1789, a copy of the ballad was sent with a letter to Graham
of Fintry. ' The election Ballad, as you will see, alludes to the present canvass
in our string of burghs. I do not believe there will be a harder run match in
the whole general election. The great man here, like all renegadoes, is a flam-
ing zealot kicked out before the astonished indignation of his deserted master,
and despised, I suppose, by the party who took him in, to be a mustering
faggot at the m)'sterious orgies of their midnight iniquities, and a useful drudge
in the dirty work of the country elections. . . . Dumfries and Sanquhar are
decidedly the Duke's to ' sell or let '; so Lochmaben, a city containing upwards
of fourscore living souls, that cannot discern between their right hand and their
left — for drunkenness— has at present the balance of power in her hands. The
honourable council of that ancient burgh, are fifteen in number; but alas!
their fifteen names endorsing a bill of fifteen pounds, would not discount the
said bill in any banking office.'
The tune in the text — the Scottish Chevy Chase — is in Scout's, Minstrelsy, 1830.
Itisinthe Caledonian Pocket Companio7i, 1753, v.j7; 'wi'W^Qt^bhoYL'iScots Times,
1768, iv, 10& ; and in Dale's Scotch Songs, 1794, i. j^. How long it was known
before the earliest date named is quite uncertain, and it is useless to speculate.
At least three different English tunes of the name are known. The earliest
is entitled Flying Fame, because it is directed to be sung to the oldest copy of
the Chevy Chase ballads. The next, with the distinctive title of The Children
in the wood, belongs to the well-known ballad of that name. It is the tradi-
tional melody of the gravedigger in Hamlet, the music of which can be seen in
■ song No. 27./ below. The third is In pescod time; or, The hitnt''s tip. The
unravelling of the history of these three melodies can be seen in Chappell's
Poptilar mtisic, and because the last is connected with Scotland as the melody
of one of the Gtide and Godlie Ballads, I subjoin the music of The hunfs up,
with a stanza of the curious parody : —
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The hunt-er is Christ that huntis in haste, The hounds are Pe-ter and Paul;
The paip is the foxe, Rome is the rox, That rub-bis us on the gall.
Wo. 268. You're welconie to despots, Dumourier. Cromek's Reliques
1808, 421. Entitled 'Address to General Dumourier: — a parody on Robin
Adair? General Dumourier, like General Monk and the Marquis of Montrose,
began his military career as a rebel, but changed sides in the course of the
game. Dumourier was one of the best generals of the French Revolution, but,
events proving distasteful to him, he abjured Republican principles. As soon as
he heard that the Directory proposed to arrest him, he took refuge in Austrian
quarters and nearly succeeded in bringing his army with him. He is briefly
and picturesquely described by Carlyle ' A most shifty wiry man ; one of
Heaven's Swiss : that wanted only work. Fifty years of unnoticed toil and
valour ; one year of toil and. valour not unnoticed, but seen of all countries and
centuries, the thirty other years again unnoticed, of memoir writing, English
Pension, scheming and projecting to no purpose.'