Glen Collection of printed music > Printed music > Jacobite relics of Scotland > [First series]

208 NOTES.
volume, collected them all and published them in one ; and I am
told that it is an exceedingly curious volume. No one need there-
fore wonder at the numbers of Jacobite songs that lie forgotten in
the repositories of the curious, considering for what a length of
time the nation was interested in the subject. There are some
allusions in the song that are not very apparent at first sight.
" Out o' my good black gowny,
That ne'er was the waur o' the wear,"
certainly alludes to the putting down of the Episcopal religion in
Scotland, that was not corrupted by having been long in use.
" Wi' the wagging o' his fause tongue
He gart the brave Monmouth die."
I have somewhere read a proof of William's having acted a part
of great duplicity and baseness with regard to Monmouth, and of
his ambassador using every means to hasten the death of that
nobleman, for fear of his making discoveries ; but cannot again
light upon the article. It was probably only a story concocted
by the party.
" wallyfu' fa' the piper
That sells his wind sae dear,"
is a singular exclamation, and certainly looks very like being
quite out of place here; whereas the allusion is sly and ingenious.
" We're a' fools but the piper, and he sells wind," is an old Scots
proverb, and uniformly applied to a fair-tongued flatterer, one
that gives good words and high promises, without any design of
fulfilling them. T am told that the song is popular in some parts
of the country, but I never heard it sung, and never saw a copy
of it save the one from which this was taken. It is there called
Willie the Wad, which I judged to be a mistake, and downright
nonsense : however, I suspect it to have been some other term
than either that or the one substituted. I once heard a country
fiddler play a tune which he called Willie the Wag ; and this was
the reason why I changed its name, from a conviction that they
must have been originally the same.