Volume I, song 074, page 75 - 'Down the burn, Davie' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Verse 1: 'When trees did bud, and fields were green, And broom bloom'd fair to see; When Mary was compleat fifteen, And love laugh'd in her eye, Blythe Davie's blinks her heart did move, To speak her mind thus free, Gang down the burn, Davie, love, And I shall follow thee.' 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. Robert Riddell, Burns's friend and support whilst he was collecting, commented his notes on the songs that this one was written by David Maigh, who kept Laird Riddell of Tweeddale's blood hounds. There was a different version of the piece published in 1725, so it has been suggested that Maigh reworked an older piece. There was alternative tune composed by the Englishman James Hook around about this time, but the Scottish version is quoted here.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503269

Title

Volume I, song 074, page 75 - 'Down the burn, Davie' - 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