No More Learning

The old words, all that I remember, are,--

"Blink over the burn, sweet Betty,
It is a cauld winter night:
It rains, it hails, it thunders,
The moon, she gies nae light:
It's a' for the sake o' sweet Betty,
That ever I tint my way;
Sweet, let me lie beyond thee
Until it be break o' day. --

O, Betty will bake my bread,
And Betty will brew my ale,
And Betty will be my love,
When I come over the dale:
Blink over the burn, sweet Betty,
Blink over the burn to me,
And while I hae life, dear lassie,
My ain sweet Betty thou's be. "

* * * * *


THE BLITHSOME BRIDAL.

I find the "Blithsome Bridal" in James Watson's collection of Scots
poems, printed at Edinburgh, in 1706. This collection, the publisher
says, is the first of its nature which has been published in our own
native Scots dialect--it is now extremely scarce.

* * * * *


JOHN HAY'S BONNIE LASSIE.

John Hay's "Bonnie Lassie" was daughter of John Hay, Earl or Marquis
of Tweeddale, and late Countess Dowager of Roxburgh. --She died at
Broomlands, near Kelso, some time between the years 1720 and 1740.

* * * * *


THE BONIE BRUCKET LASSIE.

The two first lines of this song are all of it that is old. The rest
of the song, as well as those songs in the Museum marked T. , are the
works of an obscure, tippling, but extraordinary body of the name of
Tytler, commonly known by the name of Balloon Tytler, from his having
projected a balloon; a mortal, who, though he drudges about Edinburgh
as a common printer, with leaky shoes, a sky-lighted hat, and
knee-buckles as unlike as George-by-the-grace-of-God, and
Solomon-the-son-of-David; yet that same unknown drunken mortal is
author and compiler of three-fourths of Elliot's pompous Encyclopedia
Britannica, which he composed at half a guinea a week!

* * * * *


SAE MERRY AS WE TWA HA'E BEEN.

This song is beautiful. --The chorus in particular is truly pathetic.
I
never could learn anything of its author.

CHORUS.

"Sae merry as we twa ha'e been,
Sae merry as we twa ha'e been;
My heart is like for to break,
When I think on the days we ha'e seen. "

* * * * *


THE BANKS OF FORTH.

This air is Oswald's.

* * * * *


THE BUSH ABOON TRAQUAIR.

This is another beautiful song of Mr. Crawfurd's composition. In the
neighbourhood of Traquair, tradition still shows the old "Bush;"
which, when I saw it, in the year 1787, was composed of eight or nine
ragged birches. The Earl of Traquair has planted a clump of trees near
by, which he calls "The New Bush. "

* * * * *


CROMLET'S LILT.

The following interesting account of this plaintive dirge was
communicated to Mr. Riddel by Alexander Fraser Tytler, Esq. , of
Woodhouselee.

"In the latter end of the sixteenth century, the Chisolms were
proprietors of the estate of Cromlecks (now possessed by the
Drummonds). The eldest son of that family was very much attached to a
daughter of Sterling of Ardoch, commonly known by the name of Fair
Helen of Ardoch.