Volume V, song 485, page 500 - 'The auld man's mare's dead' - 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 auld man's mare's dead, The poor man's mare's dead, The auld man's mare's dead A mile aboon Dundee. She was cut luggit, paich lippit, Steel waimit, Staincherfittit, Chanlerchafit, lang neckit, Yet the brute did die!' Chrous: 'The auld man's mare's dead, The poor man's mare's dead, The auld man's mare's dead A mile aboon Dundee.' 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. Although not known in any publication previous to the 'Museum', this song is alleged to have been written by the poet of Kinghorn, Fife, Pattie Birnie. Allan Ramsay wrote an 'Ellegy on Pattie Burns's in 1721, which reads 'The famous fiddle of Kinghorn, / Wha slaid the stick o'er the string, / With sic an art, / Wha sang sae sweetly to the Spring, / And rais'd the heart.' Ramsay also asserts that Birnie was vocalist, instrumentalist and author.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503679

Title

Volume V, song 485, page 500 - 'The auld man's mare's dead' - 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

- 129 x 211 mm