| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
FAMOUS SONGS
from him they caught the contagion and died. A later gallant, Lord Lynedoch, on whose estate the heroines lie buried, erected a kind of bower over their graves.
It is very curious that besides the two Irish stories connected with the melody of " Robin Adair," already related in an early chapter, there should be, according to Burns, another associated with Scottish tradition. The ballad is called " Cromlet's Lilt," or more generally " Since all thy vows, false maid." It is anony-mous, and first appeared in book print in Ramsay's "Tea-Table Miscellany," 1724. The note to the song in "Johnson's Museum" says: " The following account of this plaintive dirge was communicated to Mr. Riddel by Alexander Fraser Tytler of Woodhouselee: " In the latter end of the sixteenth century the Chisholms were proprietors of the estate of Cromleck (now possessed by the Drummonds). The eldest son of the family was very much attached to a daughter of Stirling of Ardoch, commonly known by the name of Helen of Ardoch. At that time the opportunities of meeting betwixt the sexes were more rare, con-sequently more sought after than now; and the Scottish ladies, far from priding themselves on extensive literature, were thought sufficiently
127 |
||