Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Illustrations of the lyric poetry and music of Scotland

70 Lxv — there's my thumb, I'll ne'ee beguile thee.
India at this day frequently conclude bargains with one ano-
ther, by licking and joining thumbs, in the very way which is
still practised anaong the boys and some of the lower orders
in Scotland. To this custom the last line, or burden of
the old Scottish song, alludes, There's my thumb, I'll ne'er
heguile thee.
LXVI.
GILDEROY.
This song is improperly titled in Johnson's Museum. It
should have been called, " Ah, Chloris, to the tune of Gil-
deroyT The tender and pathetic stanzas in the Museum
were composed by the Right Hon. Duncan Forbes, Esq.
Lord President of the Court of Session in Scotland, about
the year 1710. They were addressed to Miss Mary Rose,
the elegant and accomplished daughter of Hugh Rose, Esq.
of Kilravock. To this lady, with whom he had been ac-
quainted from infancy, he was afterwards united in marriage.
She bore him one son, who was his heir and successor, but
Mrs Forbes did not long survive this event. His Lordship,
however, remained a widower from that time till his decease,
which happened on the 10th of December 1747, in the
sixty-third year of his age. His remains were interred at
Edinburgh, in the Grayfriar's Church-yard. It may safe-
ly be affirmed, that a worthier man, a better lawyer, a more
discerning and upright judge, or a more clear-headed, steady,
and patriotic statesman than Duncan Forbes of Culloden,
never existed in any country or age. A chaste and masterly
marble statue, reckoned the chef d'cevre of the celebrated
sculptor Roubilliac, has since been erected in the Parliament-
house at Edinburgh, as a tribute of gratitude and respect to
the memory of this truly great and good man.
Ritson places Lord President Forbes's elegant stanzas at
the head of his Collection of English Songs, in 3 vols 8vo.
London, 1783, and says, that he never heard of its being set
to music. It would therefore seem, that he never thought
of looking for the song amongst the productions of the sister