Volume I, song 099, page 100 - 'Bonie Dundee' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Verse 1: 'O whar did ye get that hauvermeal bannock? O silly blind body, O dinna ye see; I gat it frae a young brisk Sodger Laddie, Between Saint Johnston and bonie Dundee. O gin I saw the laddie that gae me't! Aft has he doudl'd me upon his knee; May Heaven protect my bonie Scots laddie, And send him safe hame to his babie and me.' 'Hauvermeal' is oatmeal and 'sodger' a soldier. 'O gin' could be read in this context as 'over time' or 'again'. 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. There is some controversy over the origins of this song. Older commentators believed it to have roots in English folksong, while some modern commentators have suggested that Burns wrote at least the lyrics. The Jacobite Rebellion and the resultant exile, voluntary or otherwise, of many Scots would still have been a strong memory, even as late as Burns's childhood. Regardless of origins the sentiments expressed in the lyrics would probably have been recognisable to wide section of the audience.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503294

Title

Volume I, song 099, page 100 - 'Bonie Dundee' - 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