Volume III, song 258, pages 266 and 267 - 'There's a youth...
Volume III, song 258, pages 266 and 267 - 'There's a youth in this City' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1 (tune: 'A Galic Air'): 'There's a youth in this city, it were a great pity That he from our lasses should wander awa'; For he's bony and braw, weel favour'd with a', And his hair has a natural buckle and a'. His coat is the hue of his bonnet sae blue; His fecket is white as the new driven snaw; His hose they are blae, & his shoon like the slae, And his clear siller buckles they dazzle us a'. His coat is the hue of his bonnet sae blue; His fecket is white as the new driven snaw; His hose they are blae and his shoon like the slae, And his clear siller buckles they dazzle us a'. 'Fecket' is Scots for a shirt or a waistcoat and 'his shoon like the slae' are his shoes the colour of sloes (bluish-black).
The 'Scots Musical Museum' is the most important of the numerous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collections of Scottish song. When the engraver James Johnson started work on the second volume of his collection in 1787, he enlisted Robert Burns as contributor and editor. Burns enthusiastically collected songs from various sources, often expanding or revising them, whilst including much of his own work. The resulting combination of innovation and antiquarianism gives the work a feel of living tradition.
According to Robert Burns, in his notes on the 'Museum', 'This air is claimed by Niel (Neil) Gow who calls it his lament for his brother (Donald). The first half stanza of the song is old; the rest is mine'. Neil Gow (1727-1807) was born in Inver, near Dunkeld, and is one of Scotland's best known fiddle composers. Burns met Gow during his tour of the Highlands and remained in contact with him, using many of Gow's tunes as accompaniments to his songs. A portrait of Neil Gow, by Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823), hangs in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
Volume III, song 258, pages 266 and 267 - 'There's a youth in this City' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)