Volume III, song 264, page 275 - 'Ca' the ewes, to the...
Volume III, song 264, page 275 - 'Ca' the ewes, to the knowes' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Chorus: 'Ca' the ewes to the knowes Ca' them whare the heather grows, Ca' them whare the burnie rowes, My bonnie dearie.' Verse 1: 'As I gaed down the water-side, There I met my shepherd-lad, He row'd me sweetly in his plaid, An he ca'd me his dearie.' A 'knowl' is a knoll. The title of this song is also known with a variant spelling of ewes, 'Ca' the Yowes, to the knowes'.
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.
In his notes on the 'Museum', Burns wrote that 'This beautiful song is in the true old Scotch taste, yet I do not know that ever either air or words were in print before.' Glen (1900) quotes from a letter written by Robert Burns to George Thomson, written in 1794, in which Burns claims that about seven years prior, 'a worthy little fellow of a clergyman, a Mr Clunie' had sung the song to him. At Burns's request Stephen Clarke, the musical arranger for the 'Museum', wrote it down as Clunie was singing. Sadly, nothing more is known about either the song or the tune.
Volume III, song 264, page 275 - 'Ca' the ewes, to the knowes' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)