Volume I, song 080, page 81 - 'The Bush aboon Traquair' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Verse 1: 'Hear me, ye nymphs, and every swain, I'll tell how Peggy grieves me; Tho' thus I languish, and complain, Alas! She ne'er believes me. My vows and sighs, like silent air, Unheeded never move her. The bonny bush aboon Traquair, was where I first did love her.' 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 has left a personal comment on this song, 'This, another song of Mr. Crawford's composition. In the neighbourhood of Traquair, tradition still shews the old 'bush'; which, when I saw it in the year '87, was composed of eight or nine ragged birches'. David Rizzio has, however, also been suggested as the author, but the debate is still very much open. The title has also been recorded as 'The bonny bush boon Traquair'.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503275

Title

Volume I, song 080, page 81 - 'The Bush aboon Traquair' - 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