Volume III, song 216, page 225 - 'This is no mine ain...
Volume III, song 216, page 225 - 'This is no mine ain house' - 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 this is no mine ain house, I ken by the rigging o't, Since with my love I've changhed vows, I dinna like the bigging o't. For now that I'm young Robie's bride, And mistress of his fireside, Mine ain house I like to guide, And please me wi' the trigging o't.' 'Rigging' is the rafters or roof, 'bigging' refers to a building or the act of building and 'trigging' is finery or decoration.
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.
Note the spelling of 'changed' in the third line, 'changhed'. Johnson's spelling and grammer were notoriously bad and proved a constant source of frustration for Burns. In his notes on the 'Museum', Burns wrote that 'the first half stanza is old, the rest is Ramsay's'. He is referring to the Scottish poet Allan Ramsay (1686-1758). Ramsay was a collector of songs in his own right, producing his 'Tea-Table Miscellany' between the years 1724 and 1727. The tune is considered by Burns to be 'an old Highland air, called 'Shuan truish willighan''.
Volume III, song 216, page 225 - 'This is no mine ain house' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)