Volume II, song 180, pages 187 and 188 - 'Blythe was she' -...
Volume II, song 180, pages 187 and 188 - 'Blythe was she' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: 'Blythe, Blythe and merry was she, Blythe was she but and ben: Blythe by the banks of Ern, And blythe in Glenturit Glen. By Oughtertyre grows the aik, On Yarrow banks, the birken shaw; But Phemie was a bonier lass Than braes o' Yarrow ever saw.' Chorus: 'Blythe, Blythe and merry was she, Blythe was she but and ben, Blythe by the banks of Ern, And blythe in Glenturit Glen.'
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 song, attributed to Robert Burns, has an alternative set of verses which are sung with the same chorus as above. Verse 1: 'She took me in, she set me down, / She hecht to keep me lawin-free; / But, wylie Carlin that she was! / She gart birl my bawbie.' Burns wrote these verses whilst staying with Sir William Murray at Ochtertyre. He left a comment on his inspiration in his personal notes, which reads 'The lady, who was also at Ochtertyre at the same time, was the well-known toast, Miss Euphemia Murray of Lentrose, who was called, and very justly, the Flower of Strathmore'.
Volume II, song 180, pages 187 and 188 - 'Blythe was she' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)