HEY FOR A LASS WI' A TOCHER.

Tune-" BALINAMONA ORA."

AWA wi' your witchcraft o' beauty's alarms,
The slender bit beauty you grasp in your arms:
O, gie me the lass that has acres o' charms,
O, gie me the lass wi' the weel-stockit farms.

CHORUS.

Then hey for a lass wi' a tocher, then hey for a lass wi' a tocher,

Then hey for a lass wi' a tocher; the nice yellow guineas for me.

Your beauty's a flower, in the morning that blows,
And withers the faster, the faster it grows;
But the rapturous charm o' the bonnie green
knowes,

Ilk spring they're new deckit wi' bonnie white

yowes.

Then hey, &c.

And e'en when this beauty your bosom has blest, The brightest o' beauty may cloy, when possest; But the sweet yellow darlings wi' Geordie imprest, The langer ye hae them-the mair they're carest. Then hey, &c.

No. LXXXIII.

MR. BURNS to MR. THOMSON.

February, 1796.

MANY thanks, my dear Sir, for your handsome, elegant present, to Mrs. B, and for my remaining vol. of P. Pindar.-Peter is a delightful fellow, and a first favourite of mine. I am much pleased with your idea of publishing a collection of our songs in octavo with etchings. I am extremely willing to lend every assistance in my power. The Irish airs I shall cheerfully undertake the task of finding verses for.

I have already, you know, equipt three with words, and the other day I strung up a kind of rhapsody to another Hibernian melody, which I admire much.

HEY FOR A LASS WI' A TOCHER.

Tune-" BALINAMONA ORA."

AWA wi' your witchcraft o' beauty's alarms,
The slender bit beauty you grasp in your arms:
O, gie me the lass that has acres o' charms,
O, gie me the lass wi' the weel-stockit farms.

CHORUS.

Then hey for a lass wi' a tocher, then hey for a lass wi' a tocher,

Then hey for a lass wi' a tocher; the nice yellow guineas for me.

Your beauty's a flower, in the morning that blows,
And witbers the faster, the faster it grows;
But the rapturous charm o' the bonnie green
knowes,

Ilk spring they're new deckit wi' bonnie white yowes.

A

Then hey, &c.

And e'en when this beauty your bosom has blest, The brightest o' beauty may cloy, when possest; But the sweet yellow darlings wi' Geordie imprest, The langer ye hae them-the mair they're carest. Then hey, &.c.

If this will do, you have now four of my Irish engagement. In my by-past songs I dislike one thing; the name Chloris-I meant it as the fictitious name of a certain lady: but, on second thoughts, it is a high incongruity to have a Greek appellation to a Scottish pastoral ballad.-Of this, and some things else, in my next: I have more amendments to propose.-What you once mentioned of "flaxen locks" is just; they cannot enter into an elegant description of beauty. Of this also again-God bless you!*

No. LXXXIV.

MR. THOMSON to MR. BURNS.

YOUR Hey for a lass wi' a tocher, is a most excellent song, and with you the subject is something new indeed. It is the first time I have seen you debasing the god of soft desire, into an amateur of acres and guineas.

I am

* Our Poet never explained what name he would have

substituted for Chloris.

Note by Mr. Thomson.

I am happy to find you approve of my proposed octavo edition. Allan has designed and etched about twenty plates, and I am to have my choice of them for that work. Independently of the Hogarthian humour with which they abound, they exhibit the character and costume of the Scottish peasantry with inimitable felicity. In this respect, he himself says, they will far exceed the aquatinta plates he did for the Gentle Shepherd, because in the etching he sees clearly what he is doing, but not so with the aquatinta, which he could not manage to his mind.

The Dutch boors of Ostade are scarcely more characteristic and natural than the Scottish figures in those etchings.

VOL. IV.

S

No.