Volume IV, song 359, page 370 - 'O Kenmure's on and awa, Willie' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

O Kenmure's on and awa, Willie, O Kenmure's on and awa; An Kenmure's Lord's the bravest Lord That ever Galloway saw. Success to Kenmure's band, Willie! Success to Kenmure's band. There's no a heart that fears a Whig That rides by Kenmure's hand.' 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. This is another song about the Jacobite movement and its nobility. The subject of the song is John Gordon, Viscount Kenmure, who 'came out' as a Jacobite for the 1715 rebellion and, as a consequence, lost his head to the executioner at Tower Hill. Burns stayed with the viscount's grandson at Kenmure Castle in July, 1793. As with so many of the songs in the Scots Musical Museum, it is not clear as to whether Burns wrote this song or merely revised some existing lyrics. Glen (1900) says that the song was certainly not written in 1715, and suspects that neither the song nor the tune had been printed until the publication of the Scots Musical Museum. This is not unlikely given the oppressive political climate of the time. As a white carnation was a secret symbol for the Jacobites, the last line of the song about 'the rose that's like the snaw', is a final, romantic declaration of support for 'the King o'er the water'.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503555

Title

Volume IV, song 359, page 370 - 'O Kenmure's on and awa, Willie' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Object Type

PhysicalObject

Measurements

- 132 x 211 mm