Inglis Collection of printed music > Printed music > Songs of Scotland adapted to their appropriate melodies > Volume 1

MY AIN KIND DEARIE, 0.
143
§3
^
-Pqc
^^f?
3*T*=i
i5
w=?Zpw=£
-F — =H
E
e::
meet thee on the lea - rig 3 My aiu kind dear-ie, 0.
wir*~i
£M
i
m^
f^mt^m
u
F^m
Mil
Sp
In mirkest 3 glen, at midnight hour,
I'd rove, and ne'er be eerie, 4 ;
If thro' that glen I gaed to thee,
My ain kind dearie, !
Although the night were ne'er sae wild,
And I were ne'er sae weary, 0,
I'd meet thee on the lea-rig,
My ain kind dearie, !
poco riten.
The hunter lo'es the morning sun,
To rouse the mountain deer, my jo ;
At noon the fisher seeks the glen,
Along the burn to steer, my jo ;
Gi'e me the hour o' gloamin' gray,
It mak's my heart sae eheerie, 0,
To meet thee on the lea-rig,
My ain kind dearie, 0.
1 The hour when the ewes are driven into the pen to be milked.
2 Dull ; exhausted.
4 Frightened.
" My ain kind dearie, 0." James Oswald published the old melody in his Caledonian Pocket Companion,
vol. iifc Its author is not known. It was more anciently called '■ The lea-rig," from a song beginning,
" I'll rowe thee o'er the lea-rig,
My ain kind dearie, ;
I'll rowe thee o'er the lea-rig,
My ain kind dearie, 0.
Although the night were ne'er sae wat,
And I were ne'er sae weary, 0,
I'll rowe thee o'er the lea-rig,
My ain kind dearie, 0."
The words here given to the air were written by Burns in October 1792. It will be seen that he availed
himself of the fifth and sixth lines of the old song in his second stanza. In his letter to Mr. Thomson, sending
two stanzas of the new song, he says, " Let me tell you, that you are too fastidious in your ideas of songs and
ballads. I own that your criticisms are just ; the songs you specify in your list have, all but one, the faults you
remark in them ; but who shall mend the matter ? Who shall rise up and say — Go to, I will make a better ?
For instance, on reading over ' The lea-rig,' I immediately set about trying my hand on it, and, after all, I could
make nothing more of it than the following, which, heaven knows, is poor enough."
The following stanzas were written for this air by William Reid, Bookseller, Glasgow. Ferguson's song, of
which they were intended to be a continuation, is scarcely fit for insertion here. —
At gloamin', if my lane I be, Whare through the birks the burnie rows,
Oh, but I'm wondrous eerie, : Aft ha'e I sat fu' eheerie, 0,
And mony a heavy sigh I gi'e, Upon the bonnie greensward howes,
When absent frae my dearie, ; Wi' thee, my kind dearie, 0.
But seated 'neath the milk-white thorn, ' I've courted till I've heard the craw
In ev'ning fair and dearie, 0, Of honest chanticleerie, 0,
Enraptured, a' my cares I scorn, Yet never miss'd my sleep ava,
When wi' my kind dearie, 0. Whan wi' my kind dearie, 0.
For though the night were ne'er sae dark,
And I were ne'er sae weary, 0,
I'd meet thee on the lea rig,
My ain kind dearie, 0.
While in this weary warld of wae,
This wilderness sae drearie, 0,
What makes me blythe, and keeps me sae ?
'Tis thee, my kind dearie, !