Volume I, song 047, page 48 - 'The Collier's bonny Lassie' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Verse 1: 'The collier has a daughter, And O she's wonder bonny! A laird he was that sought her, Rich baith in lands and money. The tutors watch'd the motion of this young honest lover. But love is like the ocean; Wha can its deeps discover?' 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. Burns, in his notes on the 'Museum', commented that 'the first half stanza is much older than the days of (Allan) Ramsay. The old words began thus: 'The Collier has a dochter, and, O, she's wonder bony! / A laird he was that sought her, rich baith in lands and money. / She wadna hae a laird, nor wad she be a lady; / But she wad hae a collier, the color o' her daddie'.' The song and tune both appeared in a number of song collections published prior to the 'Museum', including William Thomson's 'Orpheus Caledonius' (1725).

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503242

Title

Volume I, song 047, page 48 - 'The Collier's bonny Lassie' - 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

- 130 x 211 mm