Inglis Collection of printed music > Printed music > Songs of Scotland prior to Burns

COWDENKNOWES. 363
But my loved song is then the broom,
So fair on Cowdenknowes ;
For sure so sweet, so soft a bloom
Elsewhere there never grows !
There Colin tuned his aiten reed,
And won my yielding heart ;
No shepherd e'er that dwelt on Tweed
Could play with half such art.
He sung of Tay, of Forth, of Clyde,
The hills and dales around,
Of Leader-haughs and Leader-side ;
Oh, how I blessed the sound !
Yet more delightful is the broom
So fair on Cowdenknowes ;
For sure so fresh, so fair a bloom,
Elsewhere there never grows.
Not Teviot braes, so green and gay,
May with this broom compare ;
Not Yarrow's banks, in flow'ry May,
Nor the Bush aboou Traquair.
More pleasing far are Cowdenknowes,
My peaceful happy home,
Where I was wont to milk my yowes
At even, among the broom.
Ye powers, that haunt the woods and plains,
Where Tweed with Teviot flows,
Convey me to the best of swains,
And my loved Cowdenknowes 1 x
These two favourite specimens of the Scottish pastoral muse
date from the early years of the eighteenth century, both of them
1 From the Tea-table Miscellany, 1724.