Volume V, song 401, page 414 - 'The Lovely Lass of Inverness' - 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 lovely lass o' Inverness Nae joy nor pleasure can she see; For e'en and morn she cries Alas! And ay the saut tear blins her e'e. Drumossie moor, Drumossie day, A waefu' day it was to me; For there I lost my father dear, My father dear and brethren three.' Drumossie Moor was the location of the Battle of Culloden (1746). 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. Some sources, including William Stenhouse (1853), claimed that whilst this song was written by Burns, the first half stanza in point of fact belonged to a much older song. John Glen (1900), on the other hand, believed the existence of an earlier stanza to be nonsense and stated 'In our opinion Burns was not indebted to any such fragment'. Finally, Glen further noted that the title of the song was taken from James Oswald's melody, 'which was published about six years before the Battle of Culloden in his Curious Collection of Scots Tunes (1740)'.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503596

Title

Volume V, song 401, page 414 - 'The Lovely Lass of Inverness' - 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