MY AIN KIND DEARIE, O! WHEN o'er the hill the eastern star, Tells bughtin'-time is near, my jo; And owsen frae the furrowed field My ain kind dearie, O! In mirkest glen, at midnight hour, Although the night were ne'er sae wild, I'd meet the on the lea-rig, My ain kind dearie, O! The hunter lo'es the morning sun, It mak's my heart sae cheery, O, My ain kind dearie, O!* *The third stanza was added to this song by Burns at the suggestion of Thomson, for whose collection the song was written. I farm. 2 long lane. LAST MAY A BRAW WOOER. LAST May a braw wooer cam' doun the lang glen, I said there was naething I hated like men- He spak' o' the darts in my bonnie black e'en, A weel-stocked mailen1, himsel' for the laird, I never loot on that I kenn'd it, or cared, But thought I might ha'e waur offers, waur offers; But what wad ye think?-in a fortnight or less, He up the lang loan2 to my black cousin Bess bear her, Guess ye how, the jaud! I could bear her. But a' the niest week as I fretted wi' care, But ower my left shoulder I ga'e him a blink, My wooer he capered as he'd been in drink, I cattle fair. 2 stared. 3 kind. I spier'd for my cousin, fu' couthy3 and sweet, But, heavens! how he fell a swearin', a swearin'! He begged, for Guidsake! I wad be his wife, So e'en to preserve the poor body in life, I think I maun wed him to-morrow, to-morrow; I think I maun wed him to-morrow. 5 out of shape. AE FOND KISS. AE fond kiss, and then we sever; Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee, I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy, We had ne'er been broken-hearted. Fare thee weel, thou first and fairest ! Ae farewell, alas! for ever! Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee, Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.* * This song is said to have been inspired by Clarinda. Scott declared the second stanza to contain the essence of a thousand love-tales. THE AUTHOR OF "THE HAR'ST RIG." 241 THE AUTHOR OF "THE HAR'ST RIG." Fl. 1786. Almost nothing is known of the writer of what remains the best poetic picture of a Lothian harvest-field, with its characteristic humours and circumstance, in the end of the eighteenth century. The poem bears to have been "written in Autumn, 1786, by a farmer in the vicinity of Edinburgh. In its first edition, in 1794, it was printed along with a similar piece of rural description, "The Farmer's Ha'," which, according to the preface, was written by an Aberdeen student, and first published about the year 1774. The author, it is expressly stated, had no connexion with the publication. "The Farmer's Ha'" would appear to have afforded William Beattie the suggestion for his Winter's Night." From allusions in "The Har'st Rig" to "The Farmer's Ha'," and from the obvious leanings of the author to the Highland character, it seems just possible that the Aberdeen student and the Lothian farmer were the same person. Several editions of "The Har'st Rig" have been printed, and it was freely quoted as an authority on the Scots vernacular by Jamieson in his Dictionary. |