Inglis Collection of printed music > Printed text > Early Scottish melodies

THE SCOTS MUSICAL MUSEUM.
179
376. SIC A WIFE AS WILLIE HAD.
Stenhouse says, " This very humorous song beginning, ' Willie Wastle
dwalt on Tweed,' was written by Burns purposely for the Museum." His
note concerning the melody, however, is entirely erroneous ; he states, —
" The words are adapted to a tune called ' The Eight Men of Moidart,'
which was formed into a Strathspey, and published by Bremner in his
' Collection of Beels and Country Dances,' about the year 1764." There is
no Strathspey of that name in Bremner's work, but " The Eight Men
Blue Beitchrs.
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of Moidart " is contained in Neil Stewart's " Collection of the Newest
and Best Beels and Country Dances," and it bears not the slightest
resemblance to " Sic a wife as Willie had." It is evident that the
vocal melody has been adapted from a reel taken from Bremner's Collec-
tion, 1760, called " Blue Britches," and occurring, twenty-four years later,
in Gow's First Collection, page 13, first edition, as " Link him Dodie "
Strathspey. It is not the " Blew Breiks " of the Skene Manuscripts.
377. LADY MARY ANN.
The tune in the Museum for this song by Burns is called by Stenhouse,
" the very beautiful old air" though it does not occur in any collection prior
to Johnson's publication. In the Works of Robert Burns, edited by Allan
Cunningham, 1864, on page 73, volume ii., we are informed, "An old
ballad, called ' Craigton's growing,' was chanted to him (Burns) in one of
his Highland excursions ; he caused the tune to be noted down, and musing
over the old rhyme, produced ' Lady Mary Ann,' and sent both music and
words to the Museum." What may be the age of the melody is quite un-
certain. Our impression is that it is not a genuine old melody, but one
compounded, to some extent, from the tunes of " Pinkie House " and " The
Blathrie o't." In cases where songs and tunes are gathered promiscuously,
unfounded tradition is frequently added to give plausibility. We suspect
Stenhouse occasionally made assertion suffice for what could not be proved.