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STORIES OF
1814. As to the cause of the quarrel between Roy and his wife tradition is dumb. A wicker basket containing oat-cakes has been darkly hinted.
The tune of Burns's " Highland Mary" was originally known as " Lady Katherine Ogle, a new dance" (1688). But as a "Scottish tune" It appeared a year previously in Playford's " Apollo's Banquet." In all probability it was popular with the people long before, both in England and Scotland, but from internal evi-dence the air seems to be chiefly Scottish in construction.
In regard to " Duncan Gray," Stenhouse says in the "Museum:" It is generally accepted that this lively air was composed by Duncan Gray, a carter or carman in Glasgow, about the beginning of last century, and that the tune was taken down from his whistling it two or three times to a musician in that city. It is inserted in MacGibbon and Oswald's " Collections." The words were written by Burns in 1792.
" The Lass o' Gowrie," by Lady Nairne, was founded on an older ballad by William Reid of Glasgow, called " Kate o' Gowrie," which is still sung. The melody is known as " Loch-Eroch Side," which was taken from " O'er young to marry yet/9 17'57.
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