Inglis Collection of printed music > Printed music > Songs of Scotland adapted to their appropriate melodies > Volume 2

JOHN OF BADENYON.
25
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country or in town ; I still was pleas'd where'er I went, and when I was a -lone, I tuned my pipe and
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pleas'd my - self with John of Ba - den - yon.*
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Now in the days of youthful prime, a mistress I must find;
For love, they say, gives one an air, and ev'n improves the mind :
On Phillis fair, above the rest, kind fortune fixed mine eyes ;
Her piercing beauty struck my heart, and she became my choice.
To Cupid, now, with hearty pray'r, I offer'd many a vow.
And danced and sung, and aigh'd and swore, as other lovers do;
But when at last I breathed my flame, I found her cold as stone —
I left the girl, and tuned my pipe to John of Badenyon.
When love had thus my heart beguiled with foolish hopes and vain,
To friendship's port I steer'd my course, and laugh'd at lover's pain;
A friend I got by lucky chance — 'twas something like divine;
An honest friend's a precious gift, and such a gift was mine.
And now, whatever may betide, a happy man was I,
In any strait I knew to whom I freely might apply.
A strait soon came; my friend 1 tried — he laugh'd, and spurn'd my moan;
I hied me home, and tuned my pipe to John of Badenyon.
What next to do I mused a while, still hoping to succeed ;
I pitch'd on books for company, and gravely tried to read :
I bought and borrow'd every where, and studied night and day,
Nor miss'd what dean or doctor wrote, that happen 'd in my way.
Philosophy I now esteem'd the ornament of youth,
And carefully, through many a page, I hunted after truth :
A thousand various schemes I tried, and yet was pleased with none ;
I threw them by, and tuned my pipe to John of Badenyon.
* Johnson and Stenhouse give " Badcnyond ;" while others give '
line of each stanza, unless the final d of " Badenyond" is silent.
Badenyon." The latter rhymes better with the final word of the seventh
" JorrN of BAnENYON." The words are by the Rev. John Skinner, the author of the song of " Tullochgorum,"
already given in this work, vol. i. pp. 52, 53. The tune is an old Highland strathspey. The fourth and sixtb
stanzas of the song have been omitted here for want of space ; they will be found in the Appendix.