Glen Collection of printed music > Printed music > Wood's edition of the songs of Scotland

THE SONGS OF SCOTLAND.
' = 80
35
THE FLOWERS OF THE FOREST.
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I've
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at the
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Lass - es
lilt - tin' be
fore dawn of
day.
Now there's a
moan - in on
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il - l;a green loan - in', The Flowers of the Fo - rest are a' wede
At buglits in the mornin', nae blithe lads are scornin',
Lasses arc lanely, and dowie, and wae ;
Nae daffin, nae gabbin, but sighin' and sabbin' ;
Ilk ane lifts her leglin, and hies her away.
At e'en in the gloamin', nae swankies are roamin'
'Bout stacks wi' the lasses at bogle to play ;
But ilk maid sits drearie, laiuentin' her dearie,
The Flowers of the Forest are a' wede away.
In har'st at the shearin', nae youths now are jeerin',
Bandsters are rankled, and lyart, or grey ;
At fair or at preachin', nae wooin', nae fleecbin',
The Flowers of the Forest are a' wede away.
Dool for the order sent our lads to the Border,
The English for ance by guile wan the day ;
The Flowers of the Forest that fought aye the foremost,
The prime of our land lie cauld in the clay.
We'll hae nae mair liltin' at the ewe milkin',
Women and bairns are heartless and wae;
Sighin' and moanin' on ilka green loanin',
The Flowers of the Forest are a' wede away.
" The Flo wees op the Forest." The earliest known copy of this fine melody is that, in tablature, in the Skene
MS., preserved in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh ; and which appears to have been written in
the earlier part of the seventeenth century. The copy above printed, (by permission,) is from the translation of the
Skene MS. made for the late Mr. William Dauney, Advocate, by the Editor of this work, and which appeared in Mr.
Dauney's Ancient Scottish Melodies. The old ballad, a lament for the disastrous field of Flodden, has been lost, with
the exception of a line or two, incorporated in Miss Elliot's verses. Its place has been well supplied by the two lyrics
which we give in this work, adapted to the ancient and the modern versions of the air. The earliest of these, that
beginning " I've seen the smiling," (see p. 2,) was written by Miss Alison Rutherford, daughter of Robert Rutherford,
Esq., of Fernylee, in Selkirkshire, who was afterwards married to Mr. Cockburn, son of the then Lord Justice-Clerk
of Scotland. The second in point of time was that which we have given above. It was written by Miss Jane Elliot,
sister of Sir Gilbert Elliot of Minto, and was published anonymously about 1755. " From its close and happy imita-
tion of ancient manners, it was by many considered as a genuine production of some old but long- forgotten minstrel.
It did not, however, escape the eagle eye of Burns. ' This fine ballad,' says he, ' is even a more palpable imitation
than Hardiknute. The manners are indeed old, but the language is of yesterday. Its author must very soon be dis-
covered.'" — Beliques. It was so; and to Mr. Ramsay of Ochtertyre, Sir Walter Scott, Bart., and the Rev. Dr.
Somerville of Jedburgh, we are indebted for the discovery. See Blackwood's edition of Johnson's Musical Museum,
in 1839, vol. i., Illustrations, p. 04, et seq., and p 122, et seq.* Also Dauney's Ancient Scottish Melodies, p. 152 of
Dissertation, et passim.
* To save room, future reference to these " Illustrations" will bo abbreviated thus ;— " Mureum Elustrations," adding the volume and rage.