And her two eyes like stars in skies, Mally's every way complete. THE FAREWELL.* Tune-" It was a' for our rightfu' king." It was a' for our rightfu' king, We left fair Scotland's strand; It was a' for our rightfu' king We e'er saw Irish land, my dear; *The above song is published in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum,' Vol. 5, but without any allusion to its being altered or improved by Burns, though Mr Cunningham, in his recent edition of the Poet's Works, assumes as much, and publishes it accordingly. In his notes to the Jacobite Reliques, the Ettrick Shepherd says, this song was written by Captain Ogilvie, who was killed on the banks of the Rhine in the year 1695. Sir Walter Scott, in his notes to Rokeby, Canto 3, acknowledges that it suggested to him the idea of his own beautiful lyric, "A weary lot is thine." We give the old song, such as it occurs in stall ballads, which was the prototype of the above. The cold winter it is past and gone, And now comes on the spring, And I am one of the king's life-guards, And I must go fight for my king, my dear; And I must go fight for my king. Now since to the wars you must go, It's I will dress myself in man's attire, Now a' is done that men can do, My love and native land farewell, For I maun cross the main, my dear; I would not for ten thousand worlds I will do the thing for my true love, It's I'll put cuffs of black on my red coat, I will do more for my true love, I'll cut my hair and roll me bare, And mourn till the day I die, my dear, So farewell mother and father dear, My sweet and bonny Mally Stewart, You're the cause of all my wo, my dear, When we came to bonny Stirling town, As we lay all in tent, By the King's orders we were all taken, And to Germany we were all sent, my dear, And to Germany we were all sent. So farewell bonny Stirling town, And the maids therein also; And farewell bonny Mally Stewart, You're the cause of all my wo, my dear, You're the cause of all my wo. She took the slippers off her feet, He turned him right, and round about And gae his bridle-reins a shake, With adieu for evermore. The sodger from the wars returns, When day is gane, and night is come, I think on him that's far awa', ; The lee-lang night, and weep, my dear; And she has ta'en a long journey, For seven lang years and mair, my dear, Sometimes she rade, sometimes she gaed, And it was aye the o'ercome o' her tale, Shall I e'er see my bonny laddie return, my dear, Shall I e'er see my bonny laddie return. The trooper turned himself round about, He has gi'en the bridle reins a shake, LADY MARY ANN.* Tune-" Craigton's Growing." O, LADY Mary Ann Looks o'er the castle wa', The youngest he was The flower amang them a', My bonnie laddie's young, * Burns noted the song and the air from a lady in the north country when upon his tour in that district, and communicated it to Johnson; and it must be confessed that, in so much of it as is his own, he has displayed all his accustomed taste and fine feeling. From the "Museum" Mr Finlay transplanted it into his collection of ballads, but apparently without the slightest notion of the master mind which had been at work upon it. In "The North Countrie Garland, Edinburgh, 1824," edited by Mr Maidment, advocate, we are furnished with the first version of the old ballad, accompanied with the following historical note:"The estate of Craigstoun was acquired by John Urquhart, better known by the name of the tutor of Cromarty. It would appear that the ballad refers to his grandson, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Robert Innes of that ilk, and by her had one son. This John Urquhart died 30th November, 1634.-Spalding, (vol. i. p. 36,) after mentioning the great mortality in the Craigstoun family, says, thus in three years space, the good sire, son, and oy, died.' He adds, that the Laird of Innes, whose sister was married to this Urquhart of Leathers, (the father,) and not without her consent, as was thought, gets the guiding of this young boy, and without advice of friends, shortly and quietly marries him, upon his own eldest daughter Elizabeth Innes.' He mentions that young Craigstoun's death was generally attributed to melancholy, in consequence of Sir Robert Innes refusing to pay old Craigstoun's debts. The creditors bestowing many maledictions which touched the young man's conscience, albeit he could not mend it.' The father died in December, 1631, and the son in 1634. The marriage consequently must have been of short duration." We subjoin a copy of it as traditionally preserved in the west of Scotland: MY BONNIE LADDIE'S LANG O' GROWING. The trees they are ivied, the leaves they are green, On the cauld winter nights I ha'e to lie my lane, O father dear, you have done me great wrong, And my bonnie laddie's lang o' growing. O daughter dear, I have done you no wrong, And your bonnie laddie's daily growing. O father dear, if you think it fit, We'll send him to the college a year or twa yet; And that will be a token that he's married. And O father dear, if this pleaseth you, And I to the college will go wi' him. She's made him shirts o' the Holland sae fine, Saying, my bonnie laddie's lang o' growing. In his twelfth year he was a married man, M. |