Volume III, song 285, pages 294 and 295 - 'John o' Badenyond' - 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 first I came to be a man of twenty years or so, I thought myself a handsome youth, and fain the world would know; In best attire I stept abroad, with spirits brisk and gay, And here and there, and every where, was like a morn in May. No care I had, nor fear of want, but rambled up and down; And for a beau I might have pass'd in country or in town I still was pleas'd in country or in town I still was pleas'd where'er I went, and when I was alone, I tun'd my pipe and pleas'd myself with John of Badenyond.' 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 was written by the Reverend John Skinner (1721-1807) of Longside, near Linshart, Aberdeenshire. Burns, impressed with his work, encouraged Skinner to contribute a number of other songs to the 'Museum', including 'Tullochgorum' (song 289) and 'The Ewie wi' the Crooked Horn' (song 293). John Glen (1900) notes that the air to which this song was adapted is a strathspey, and was first printed in Alexander McGlashan's 'Collection of Reels' (1786) and in James Aird's Selection of 1788.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503481

Title

Volume III, song 285, pages 294 and 295 - 'John o' Badenyond' - 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

- 263 x 211 mm