Inglis Collection of printed music > Printed music > Scottish songs > Volume 1

jxiv HISTORICAL ESSAY
Jbepherd, will ever remain a fubftantial monu-
ment; and though fome of his fongs mav be
deformed by far-fetched al'ufions and pitiful
conceits, Tbelafs of Peattiesmill, The yellow bair'd
laddie, Farewell to Lochaber, and fome others,
muft be allowed equal to any, and even fuperior,
in point of paftoral fimplicity, to moft lyric pro-
ductions, either in the Scotifh or any other
language^:;). As an editor, he is, perhaps,
reprehenfible, not only on account of the liberties
he appears to have taken with many of the earlier
pieces he publifhed, in printing them with addi-
tions^), which one is unable to diftinguifh,
(55) It isfomewhat ftrange, that Mr. Tytler, knowing both
when Ramfay began to write, and the fongs of which he is
the author, mould confider feveral of his undoubted compofi-
tinns among the fine fongs which " we may almoft with cer-
tainty pronounce to have been made" vvkhin his " l<;ft aera,
that is, from the reftoration to the union."
(56) He rruvks the following pieces with the letter Z, as
" old fongs i" Minrlar.d Wd'.ie, Scorrfn' Nancy, Maggie's
tocher, For the love of yean, The blythjome bridal, Fint a tram
if thee foe fatvs, The auld gocdman, The fhepherd Adonis, John
Ochiltree, In "January loft, General Lejlys march, The de-
ceiver, fErglifh.] Tcdlen but and todhn ben, Robs Jock, Country
lafs, TVah, ioaly, O'er the hills and far aivay, Norland Jocky
and Southlard Jenry : the following wirh Q, as " old fongs
with additions:" 1+ucky Nancy, Add Rob Marris, Eiv bugkts,
Marrion, Omnia vincit amor, The auld <wife beyont the fire,
S'eefy body, Jocky blyth ar.d gay, Had aivay from me Dor.ald,
The peremptory lover,* What's that to you, Jocky fou Jenny fair ,
Jenny where ha' s thou been. Some indifputably old fongs, how-
ever, are printed without either of thefe letters.
* The enlargement of this fong feems to have been entrufted
to one of his Iiifh journeymen, the additions confifting in the
tmifilon of three whole ftanzas.