Page:The Book of Scottish Song.djvu/105

Rh Aft ha'e I roved by bonnie Doon,

To see the woodbine twine,

And ilka bird sang o' its love;

And sae did I o' mine.

Wi' lightsome heart I pu'd a rose,

Frae aff its thorny tree;

And my fause luver staw the rose,

But left the thorn wi' me.

[ Version, written by for Johnson's Museum. The following account of the air is given by the Poet, in a letter to Mr. Thomson, dated Nov. 1794: "There is an air, The Caledonian Hunt's Delight, to which I wrote a song that you will find in Johnson—Ye banks and braes o' bonnie Doon. This air, I think, might find a place among your hundred, as Lear says of his knights. Do you know the history of the air? It is curious enough. A good many years ago, Mr. James Miller, writer in your good town, was in company with our friend Clarke: and talking of Scottish music, Miller expressed an ardent ambition to be able to compose a Scots air. Mr. Clarke, partly by way of joke, told him to keep to the black keys of the harpsichord, and preserve some kind of rhythm, and he would infallibly compose a Scots air. Certain it is, that, in a few days, Mr. Miller produced the rudiments of an air, which Mr. Clarke, with some touches and corrections, fashioned into the tune in question."]

[ by. Composed and arranged for the Piano Forte by N. Gow, jun.]

[ by the late of Greenock. Adapted to the celebrated air of "Rousseau's Dream."]

the moon o'er cloudless Jura

Shining in the lake below;

See the distant mountain towering

Like a pyramid of snow.

Scenes of grandeur—scenes of childhood—

Scenes so dear to love and me!

Let us roam by bower and wildwood,

All is lovelier when with thee.