No. 40. Blythe hae I been on yon hill.
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Source: «traditionalmusic.co.uk»
No. 40. Blythe hae I been on yon hill. Thomson's Scotish Airs, 1799, JS, ' Written for this work by Robert Burns. Air, The Quaker's Wife.' The second song for Miss Lesley Baillie. Burns thought this one of his finest songs, and enthusiastically affirms that the lady was positively the most beautiful young woman in the world. He transmitted the verses to Thomson about June, 1793. And of the tune The Quaker's Wife, he says: 'Mr. Fraser plays it slow, and with an expression that quite charms me. I got such an
enthusiast in it that I made a song for it, which I here subjoin, and enclose Fraser's set of the tune. If they hit your fancy, they are at your service; if not, return me the tune, and I will put it in Johnson's Museum ' The music in the text is from Bremner's Reels, 1759, _y, entitled Merrily dance the Quaker. In a letter of October, 1793, Burns stated that' an old gentleman, a deep anti quarian,' knew The Quaker's Wife as a Gaelic air by the name of Leiger 'm choss, and that the words of the West Country fragment of the song were as follows:—
- 'Leiger 'm choss, my bonie wee lass,
- Leiger 'm choss, my dearie;
- A' the lee-lang winter night,
- Leiger 'm choss, my dearie.'
A song of Burns for the tune is in Merry Mttses, beginning:—
- 'Come rede me dame, come tell me dame,
- My dame come tell me truly,' &c.
Source: «traditionalmusic.co.uk»
