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

THE SCOTS MUSICAL MUSEUM. 229
553. EETUEN HAMEWAED.
This song, though Stenhouse says it is in the Tea-Table Miscellany, 1724,
does not appear before the end of the third volume in the edition of 1734,
mentioned in the previous note. It bears the name of " Fint a crum of
thee she faws " in the Miscellany, and has the letter Z attached to it, but
no tune is mentioned. The tune in the Museum, however, is contained
in " Aird's Selection of Scotch, English, Irish, and Foreign Airs," 1782, as
" The Spinning Wheel," and that song is included in the second volume
of the Tea-Table Miscellany. We know of no tune in any collection prior
to the Museum entitled " Fint a crum of thee she faws." Oswald's
" Spinning Wheel " is not the same air. Since writing the above we have
discovered the melody, entitled " A Scotch Tune," in a London publication
of 1729.
554. MY LADY'S GOWN THERE'S GAIRS UPON 'T.
This is another song having prefixed to it in the Museum, " Written for
this work by Eobert Burns." It may be his, but we hesitate to believe
that Johnson retained in his possession sixteen songs written by Burns till
he published his sixth volume, seven years after the bard's death. The air
to which the words are adapted is a strathspey believed to be the com-
position of James Greig, a teacher of dancing in Ayrshire. It is much in
the style of Greig's Pipes, a tune named after the same composer.
555. MAY MORNING.
This song of " May Morning " is a mere trifle, which was anonymously
given to Johnson. Stenhouse says, " It is adapted to an old strathspey
tune which is very pretty," but his opinions anent dance music seem to us
of little value. What its name is or where he found it, we know not ;
but the second strain somewhat reminds us of "My love she's but a
lassie yet."
Allan Ramsay. Dublin, 1734." We find the last ten songs in the third volume are taken
from it, and along with them five other songs, not previously published by Ramsay, have been
added to the first volume of 1724 in the collected edition, 1740. The names of the songs are : " To
L. M. M." beginning " Mary ! thy graces and glances " ; " This is no mine ain House " ;
" Fint a Crum of thee she faws " ; "To Mris E. C," commencing " Now Phcebus advances
on high " ; "My Dady forbad, and my Minny forbad " ; " Steer her up, and had her gaun ; "
" Clout the Caldron ; " " The Malt-Man " ; " Bonny Bessie " ; "Omnia vincit amor " ; " The
auld Wife beyont the Fire " ; " I'll never love thee more " ; " The Black Bird " ; " Take your
Auld Cloak about yon "; and " The Quadruple Alliance."