Page:The Book of Scottish Song.djvu/319

Rh For why should I stand haverin' here,

Like pulin' hopeless swain,

When ilka blush, and sigh, and tear,

Declares ye a' my ain!

[" song," says Burns, "was the work of a very worthy, facetious old fellow,, late of Dalfram, near Muirkirk; which little property he was obliged to sell, in consequence of some connection, as security, for some persons concerned in that villanous bubble, The Ayr Bank. He has often told me that he composed this song one day when his wife had been fretting o'er their misfortunes." It will be recollected, that Burns, hearing the song sung at a "country rocking," was so much taken with it that he addressed a rhyming epistle to Lapraik, which opened up a correspondence between them. The poet says,

Lapraik was greatly the senior of Burns, having been born in 1727, yet he long survived him, as he died at Muirkirk, where he latterly kept the village post office, in 1807. In 1788, he published at Kilmarnock a volume of poems, but none of them surpassed, if they equalled, the song which drew forth the generous praise of Burns.—Tune, "The Scots Recluse," or "Johnnie's Grey Breeks."]

[ was introduced as a Scotch song in Bickerstaff's opera of "Love in a Village," first acted at Covent Garden Theatre in 1762.]