Stories of Famous Songs, Vol 1

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STORIES OF
shall enjoy his own again" as a compliment to Charles Edward. He also played " Cooling " The Dawning of the Day," " Eileen Aroon," " Cean dubh dilis," etc.; so there is no doubt as to how so many of the Irish melodies, in-cluding (f Maggie Lauder," came to be num-bered amongst the Scottish national airs. Thus it was only natural that when Burns was asked to dress " Robin Adair" in the kilt, he should have already heard the song. But, for some reason unknown, Burns did not write or re-write the words, though the erudite Dr. Charles Mackay assumes that he did, as those interested will gather from the " Royal Edition of Songs of Scotland" still published. Again, Robin Adair was a real personage, an Irishman, but not the ancestor of Viscount Molesworth, as is generally believed, who lived at Holly Park, in the County of Wicklow. This was another Robin Adair, who had no connection with the song, though tradition has tried to fix it so. At Bray, in Wicklow, by the way, there is still a " Robin Adair's" well. This Robin's house stood at the foot of the great Sugar-loaf moun-tain (properly Slieve Cullinn). The real Robin Adair was most likely a grandson of Patrick Adair of Ballymena, County Antrim, whose son, Sir Robert, married four times and had
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