Oh, more than blooming daisies fair!
More fragrant than the vernal air!
More gentle than the turtle dove,
Or streams that murmur through the grove!
Bethink thee all is on the wing,
These pleasures wait on wasting spring;
Then come, the transient bliss enjoy,
Nor fear what fleets so fast will cloy.
The Bonnie Scot.
[This is one of Ramsay's songs in the Tea Table Miscellany. It was written to a tune called "The Boatman," which resembles much the old air, "Nancy's to the greenwood gane." "There is a tradition," says Mr. Chambers, "mentioned by the Rev. James Hall, in his Travels through Scotland, [2 vols. 1807,] that the early song upon which Ramsay founded the above, was composed on the preference which Mary of Guise gave to our James V., as a husband, over the English Henry VIII."]
Ye gales, that gently wave the sea,
And please the canny boat-man,
Bear me frae hence, or bring to me
My brave, my bonnie Scot-man.
In haly bands we joined our hands,
Yet may not this discover,
While parents rate a large estate
Before a faithfu' lover.
But I loor chuse, in Highland glens
To herd the kid and goat, man,
Ere I could, for sic little ends,
Refuse my bonnie Scot-man.
Wae worth the man, wha first began
The base ungenerous fashion,
Frae greedy views love's art to use,
While strangers to its passion!
Frae foreign fields, my lovely youth,
Haste to thy longing lassie,
Who pants to press thy balmy mouth,
And in her bosom hause thee.
Love gi'es the word; then, haste on board;
Fair winds and tenty boat-man,
Waft o'er, waft o'er, frae yonder shore,
My blythe, my bonnie Scot-man.
Pinkie House.
[The following song was written by Joseph Mitchell to an old melody, which resembles in its character a church tune, called "Rothe's Lament." Pinkie House is the name of the seat of Sir John Hope, Bart., situated near the town of Musselburgh. From this song the tune is now called "Pinkie House," and the old name "Rothe's Lament" is dropped. Mitchell was the son of a stone-mason, and was born in 1684. He was author of a tragedy called Fatal Extravagance, of an opera called the Highland Fair, and of two volumes of Poems, published in 1729. He died in 1738. Long before his death, be got introduced to Sir Robert Walpole, the celebrated Whig minister, by whom he was liberally patronized, insomuch that he used to be called the Premier's Poet. Besides "Pinkie House" Mitchell wrote another song to the same tune, beginning,
"As Sylvia in a forest lay,"
which has sometimes been erroneously ascribed to David Mallet.]
By Pinkie House oft let me walk,
And muse o'er Nelly's charms!
Her placid air, her winning talk,
Even envy's self disarms.
O let me, ever fond, behold
Those graces void of art—
Those cheerful smiles that sweetly hold,
In willing chains, my heart!
O come, my love! and bring anew
That gentle turn of mind;
That gracefulness of air in you
By nature's hand design'd.
These, lovely as the blushing rose,
First lighted up this flame,
Which, like the sun, for ever glows
Within my breast the same.
Ye light coquettes! ye airy things!
How vain is all your art!
How seldom it a lover brings!
How rarely keeps a heart!
O gather from my Nelly's charms
That sweet, that graceful ease,
That blushing modesty that warms,
That native art to please!
