Volume I, song 066, page 67 - 'Gilderoy' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Verse 1: 'Ah! Chloris, cou'd I now but sit As unconcern'd as when Your infant beauty could beget No happiness, nor pain! When I thy dawning did admire, And prais'd the coming day, I little thought that riseing fire Wou'd take my rest away.' 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. Chloris was popular amongst poets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as the heroine's name. Khloris was the Greek goddess of vegetation and the name in this context implies protection, fertility and rural charm. Information on the name Gilderoy is a little hazy, although it is recorded in broadsides that he was hanged in 1638. It is believed that he was called Patrick MacGregour and may have been a Perthshire freebooter or a pan-European highwayman, or perhaps even both.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503261

Title

Volume I, song 066, page 67 - 'Gilderoy' - 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