Page:The Book of Scottish Song.djvu/125

Rh

[ tune, called "Miss Admiral Gordon's Strathspey," composed for the song "Of a' the airts the wind can blaw," is formed on the fine old air of "The Lawlands of Holland." The words themselves are said to be the lamentation of a young widow in Galloway, whose husband was drowned in a voyage to Holland, about the beginning of the last century.]

[ author of this song, and of several others which we shall have occasion to quote in the course of this work, was of Kilbarchan, in Renfrewshire. He was intimate with Tannahill and R. A. Smith, and wrote a number of pieces for the latter's "Scottish Minstrel" and other musical publications, some of which have become popular. He also published a collection of his poems at Glasgow in 1836. After spending a lengthened and much respected life in his native village, (his employment being that of a weaver and manufacturer's agent,) he was induced to emigrate to the United States of America, where some of his relations had established themselves. Accordingly, he sailed from Greenock, for New York, on the 28th April, 1841, but had not long landed in America when he was carried off by a bilious fever, under which he had been labouring during the latter portion of the passage. His death took place on the 7th June, 1841, exactly eight days after his arrival in New York. His funeral was attended by a number of his countrymen and of Americans. At the time of his death his age was about 67.]

cam' to our gate, yestreen,

An' low she curtsied down;

She was lovelier far an' fairer to see

Than a' our ladies roun'.

O whare do ye wend, my sweet winsome doo?

An' whare may your dwelling be?

But her heart, I trow, was liken to break,

An' the tear-drap dim'd her e'e.