No More Learning

"The Bonnie Lass made the Bed to me," was composed on an amour of
Charles II. when skulking in the North, about Aberdeen, in the time of
the usurpation. He formed _une petite affaire_ with a daughter of the
house of Portletham, who was the "lass that made the bed to him:"--two
verses of it are,

"I kiss'd her lips sae rosy red,
While the tear stood blinkin in her e'e;
I said, My lassie, dinna cry,
For ye ay shall make the bed to me.

She took her mither's holland sheets,
And made them a' in sarks to me;
Blythe and merry may she be,
The lass that made the bed to me. "

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ABSENCE.

A song in the manner of Shenstone.

This song and air are both by Dr. Blacklock.

* * * * *


I HAD A HORSE AND I HAD NAE MAIR.

This story is founded on fact. A John Hunter, ancestor to a very
respectable farming family, who live in a place in the parish, I
think, of Galston, called Bar-mill, was the luckless hero that "had a
horse and had nae mair. "--For some little youthful follies he found it
necessary to make a retreat to the West-Highlands, where "he feed
himself to a _Highland_ Laird," for that is the expression of all the
oral editions of the song I ever heard. --The present Mr. Hunter, who
told me the anecdote, is the great-grandchild of our hero.

* * * * *


UP AND WARN A' WILLIE.
This edition of the song I got from Tom Niel, of facetious fame, in
Edinburgh. The expression "Up and warn a' Willie," alludes to the
Crantara, or warning of a Highland clan to arms. Not understanding
this, the Lowlanders in the west and south say, "Up and _waur_ them
a'," &c.

* * * * *


A ROSE-BUD BY MY EARLY WALK.

This song I composed on Miss Jenny Cruikshank, only child of my worthy
friend Mr. William Cruikshank, of the High-School, Edinburgh. This air
is by a David Sillar, quondam merchant, and now schoolmaster in
Irvine. He is the _Davie_ to whom I address my printed poetical
epistle in the measure of the Cherry and the Slae.

* * * * *


AULD ROB MORRIS.

It is remark-worthy that the song of "Holy and Fairly," in all the old
editions of it, is called "The Drunken Wife o' Galloway," which
localizes it to that country.

* * * * *


RATTLIN, ROARIN WILLIE.

The last stanza of this song is mine; it was composed out of
compliment to one of the worthiest fellows in the world, William
Dunbar, Esq. , writer to the signet, Edinburgh, and Colonel of the
Crochallan Corps, a club of wits who took that title at the time of
raising the fencible regiments.

* * * * *


WHERE BRAVING ANGRY WINTER STORMS.

This song I composed on one of the most accomplished of women, Miss
Peggy Chalmers, that was, now Mrs. Lewis Hay, of Forbes and Co.