Volume VI, song 526, pages 542 and 543 - 'My Daddy left me &c.' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Verse 1: 'My daddy left me gear enough a couter and an auld beam plough a nebbed staff a nutting tyne a fishing wand wi' hook and line Wi' twa auld stools and a dirt house a jerkinet scare worth a louse an auld pat that wants the lug a spurtle and a sowen mug.' A 'couter' is a coulter, 'nebbed' is the tip of an object, a 'nutting tyne' is a nut-hook, a 'jerkinet' is a bodice, the 'lug' of a 'pat' is a jug handle and a 'spurtle' is a wooden rod for stirring porridge. 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 comic song humorously lists the worldly goods left by a father to his daughter, with the closing line giving the total monetary value that the goods amount to. John Glen (1900) writes that the song first appeared in printed form in the second edition of William Thomson's 'Orpheus Caledonius' in 1733, but that the melody was then called 'Willie Winkie's Testament'. Though Glen admits that the song could originate from the early years of the eighteenth century, he says that the evidence to prove this is hard to uncover. Glen concludes that the song is an old country dance tune, and that it can be found in Walsh's book of 'Caledonian Country Dances' (1745) under the title, 'Willey Winkey'.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503720

Title

Volume VI, song 526, pages 542 and 543 - 'My Daddy left me &c.' - 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

- 258 x 211 mm