Volume I, song 096, page 97 - 'The Mucking of Geordie's Byar' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Verse 1: 'As I went over yon meadow, And carelessly passed along, I listen'd with pleasure to Jenny, While mournfully singing this Song. The mucking of Geordie's Byar, And the shooling the Gruip so clean, Has aft gart me spend the night sleepless, And brought the salt tears in my een.' The Scots word for eyes is 'e'en' and 'gart' means compelled. The word 'shooling' translates as 'shoveling' and a 'gruip' is the cow house drain. 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 tune's melody and lyrics have an interesting history. Burns believed the lyrics to have been written by James Tytler, of Edinburgh, although he thought the chorus was much older. It has been suggested, however, that Allan Ramsay (1686-1758) wrote a first verse to match older words. The tune itself matches three other tunes called, 'The Kirk wad let me be', 'My Dady's a delver of Dykes' and 'The three good fellows'.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503291

Title

Volume I, song 096, page 97 - 'The Mucking of Geordie's Byar' - 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