Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Amusements of leisure hours, or, Poetical pieces, chiefly in the Scottish dialect

31
have made a public appearance beyond my expecta-
tions, and contrary to my intentions, — at the same
time that I hope there is nothing to be found in them
uncharacteristic, or unbecoming the cloth, which I
would always wish to see respected. As to the assist-
ance you propose from me in the undertaking you
are engaged in, I am sorry I cannot give it so far as
I could wish, and you perhaps expect. My daugh-
ters, who were my only intelligencers, are all foris-
familiate^ and the old woman, their mother, has lost
that taste. There are two from my own pen, which
J might give you, if worth the while : One to the
old Scotch tune of u Dumbarton's drums.'''' The
other, perhaps, you have met with, as your noble
friend the Duchess has, I am told, heard of it. It
was squeezed out of me by a brother parson in her
neighbourhood, to accommodate a new highland reel
for the Marquis's birth-day, to the stanza of
" Tune your fiddles, tune them sweetly," &c.
If this last answer your purpose, you may have it from
a brother of mine, Mr James Skinner, writer in
Edinburgh, who, I believe, can give the music too.
There is another humourous thing, I have heard,
said to be done by the Catholic priest Geddes, and
which hit my taste much.
" There was a wee wifeikie was comin frae the fair,
i* Had gotten a little drapikie, which bred her meikil
care \
c2