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

THE SCOTS MUSICAL MUSEUM. 213
495. HERE'S TO THY HEALTH, MY BONNIE LASS.
Tunc — "Loggan Burn."
Burns, it is said, communicated the air along with the song, and he
called the tune Laggan Burn. It is apparently a modification of a Strath-
spey in Gow's Third Collection, 1792, page 15, claimed by Nathaniel Gow
under the title of " Lady Shaftsbury's Strathspey/' but the tune was pub-
lished in Malcolm M'Donald's Second Collection, 1789, entitled " Greenend
Park." The melody has been somewhat abbreviated in the second strain
to suit the words. We have never seen the tune styled " Laggan or Loggan
burn " before its insertion in the Museum.
496. JENNY'S BAWBEE.
Mr William Chappell has set up an absurd claim for this tune as an
English composition. We simply repeat our argument, given in the
introduction to the Glen Collection of Scottish Dance Music, vol. i., in
order to expose the fallacy. Mr Chappell not only claims the tune as
English, but he accuses a countryman of his own, Stephen Clarke, of
making changes in well-known airs to fit them for the Scots Musical
Museum, of which Clarke was the ostensible musical editor. Little
scruple was shown in making such changes, for even the well-known
country dance and nursery song, " Polly put the Kettle on," was trans-
formed into a Scotch tune for the Museum in 1797. Mr Chappell
further has the hardihood to say that the words of " J enny's Bawbee "
were adapted to it, although, as they begin " A' that e'er my Jenny had,
my Jenny had, my Jenny had," they were evidently intended for the tune
of " Sike a Wife as Willy had, as Willy had, as Willy had." Now while it
is quite true that " Jenny's Bawbee " appears in the " Scots Musical
Museum " for 1797, and that three years previously the same tune, under
the title of " Polly put the Kettle on," had become very popular with
young ladies, by means of "Dale's Variations for the Pianoforte," it is
equally true that if Mr Chappell had extended his researches a little
farther, he would have found "Jenny's Bawbee" in Archibald Duff's
Collection, Aird's Selection, vol. iii., and Joshua Campbell's Collection,
1794, 1788, and 1778 respectively. In Dale's Collection of Eeels and
Dances, No. 2, p. 8, it is called "Jennie's Bawbie," or "Molly put the
Kettle on," not Polly. The popular verses are from the pen of Alexander
Boswell. George Thomson asked for the exclusive right to publish the
words, which was refused.