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FAMOUS SONGS
The music of " Within a Mile of Edinburgh Town" was composed by James Hook, pro-genitor of Theodore the novelist and practical joker, to a modernized version of Tom D'Urfey's words. And as the Hooks, fere ct fils, wrote many operettas and songs together, it is just possible that Theodore brought " Within a Mile" down to date by eliminating the coarse-ness. The elder Hook was born at Norwich 1746, and died at Boulogne 1827.
Allan Ramsay, when he came across " Blue Bonnets over the Border," inserted it in his "Tea-Table Miscellany" and labelled it "ancient," little knowing that it was written by Sir Walter Scott, who founded it on " General Leslie's march to Longmarston Moor." But most col-lectors of old songs are bound to be deceived occasionally by falling victims to their own enthusiasm. James Grant in his Preface to "The Scottish Cavalier" says, respecting the original Annie Laurie who inspired Douglas of Finland to write the song known by that name: "History will have rendered familiar to the* reader the names of many who bear a prominent part in the career of Walter Fenton; but there are other characters of minor importance who, though less known to fame than Dundee and Dumbarton, were beings who really lived and
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