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

THE SONGS OF SCOTLAND.
» = 84
V
ANDANTE
CON MOLTO
ESHtESSIONE.
OH! WHY LEFT I MY HAME ?
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Oh ! why left I my hame ? Why did I cross the
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Oh!
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sleep ?
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sigh for
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tia's
shore, And I
gaze
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But I can - na' get
blink ' O' my
trie.
The palm-tree waveth high,
And fair the myrtle springs.
And to the Indian maid
The bulbul sweetly sings;
But I dinna see the broom,
Wi' its tassels on the lea,
Nor hear the lin tie's s sang
0' my ain countrie
Oh ! here no Sabbath bell
Awakes the Sabbath morn,
Nor song of reapers heard
Amang the yellow corn :
For the tyrant's voice is here,
And the wail of slaverie ;
But the sun of freedom shines
In my ain countrie.
There's a hope for every woe.
And a balm for every pain,
But the first joys of our heart
Come never back again.
There's a track upon the deep,
And a path across the sea,
But the weary ne'er return
To their ain countrie.
' Glimpse.
" On ! whv left I my hame?" In Johnson's Museum, vol. ii. No. 115, we find a tune called " The Lowlands of
Holland," which remarkably resembles the tune here set to Mr. R. Gilfillan's words. The former tune was published
by James Oswald, in 1742, and was ascribed to him by his sister and his daughter. The late Mr. William Marshall,
butler to the Duke of Goi-don, and remarkable for his natural musical talent, transformed Oswald's air into "Miss
Admiral Gordon's Strathspey," to which Burns wrote the charming song, " Of a' the airts the wind can blaw." See
Museum, Introduction to vol. i. p. 51 ; and Illustrations, vol. ii p. 115. Mr. Stenhouse erred in saying that the tune
No. 116 in Johnson's Museum, was published by James Oswald in 1742; for, on looking into Oswald's Second Col-
lection, we find, p. 25, " The low lands of Holand." a tune totally unlike the one under the same name in Johnson.
The original of that tune, published by Oswald, is to be found in No. 17 of the Skene MS. ; a fact which at once
demolishes Oswald's claim to the tunc, and brings additional proof of his utter untrustworthiness. See p. 42, of this
work for " The Lowlands of Holland," and p. 43, for " Of a' the airts the wind can blaw."