Familiar Songs - Their Authors & Histories

300 traditional songs, inc sheet music with full piano accompaniment & lyrics.

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	LOVE'H R1TORXELLA.	253
	DOWN THE BURN. This song first appeared in Ramsay's "Tea-Table Miscellany." The two original stanzas were written by Robert Crawftjrd, who was a cadet of the house of Drumsay, in Renfrewshire, Scotland. He was born in 1695, but spent most of his time in France, and was drowned when returning from there in 1732-'3. He was supposed to have been a friend of William Hamilton, author of " The Braes of Yarrow," as it was through his influ­ence that Crawfurd's poems found entrance to Ramsay's collection, and a song of Craw-furd's is addressed to Mrs. Hamilton. The stanza given below was added by Burns, who says that neighborhood tradition gave the composition of the air to David Maigh, keeper of the blood-hounds to the Laird of Riddell, in Roxburghshire. As down the burn they took their way, And through the flowery dale, His cheek to hers he aft did lay, And love was aye the tale. With, " Mary, when shall we return, Sic pleasure to renew ?" Quoth Mary, " Love, I like the burn, And aye will follow you."