Willie Winkie’s Testament.
[This curious old inventory of goods and chattels appears, with the above title, in Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius, 1725, but it is not given by Ramsay in his Tea-Table Miscellany.]
My daddy left me gear enough:
A couter, and an auld beam-plough,
A nebbed staff, a nutting-tyne,
A fishing-wand with hook and line;
With twa auld stools, and a dirt-house,
A jerkenet, scarce worth a louse,
An auld pat, that wants the lug,
A spurtle and a sowen mug.
A hempen heckle, and a mell,
A tar-horn, and a weather's bell,
A muck-fork, and an auld peak-creel,
The spakes of our auld spinning-wheel;
A pair of branks, yea, and a saddle,
With our auld brunt and broken laddle,
A whang-bit, and a sniffle-bit:
Cheer up, my bairns, and dance a fit.
A flailing-staff, a timmer-spit,
An auld kirn and a hole in it,
Yarn-winnles, and a reel,
A fetter-lock, a trump of steel,
A whistle, and a tup-horn spoon,
Wi' an auld pair o' clouted shoon,
A timmer spade, and a gleg shear,
A bonnet for my bairns to wear.
A timmer tongs, a broken cradle,
The pinion of an auld car-saddle,
A gullie-knife, and a horse-wand,
A mitten for the left hand,
With an auld broken pan of brass,
With an auld hyeuk for cutting grass,
An auld band, and a hoodling-how,
I hope, my bairns, ye're a' weel now.
Aft have I borne ye on my back,
With a' this riff-raff in my pack;
And it was a' for want of gear,
That part me steal Mess John's grey mare:
But now, my bairns, what ails ye now,
For ye ha'e naigs enough to plow;
And hose and shoon fit for your feet,
Cheer up, my bairns, and dinna greet.
Then with mysel' I did advise,
My daddie's gear for to comprise;
Some neighbours I ca'd in to see
What gear my daddy left to me.
They sat three-quarters of a year,
Comprising of my daddy's gear;
And when they had gi'en a' their votes,
'Twas scarcely a' worth four pounds Scots.
My Lady’s Gown.
[This song was written by Burns in 1788 for Johnson's Museum, but it does not appear in that work till near the close. It is supposed that Burns was indebted for the idea and some of the words of the song to an old licentious ditty. The tune to which the song is sung is a popular strathspey or reel tune, composed by James Gregg, a teacher of dancing in Ayrshire. Gregg was a very ingenious man, and distinguished in particular for his skill in mechanics. He died in 1817.]
My lady's gown there's gairs upon't,
And gowden springs sae rare upon't;
But Jennie's jimps and jerkinet,
My lord thinks meikle mair upon't.
My lord a-hunting he is gane;
But hounds and hawks wi' him are nane;
By Colin's cottage lies his game,
If Colin's Jennie be at hame.
My lady's white, my lady's red,
And kith and kin o' Cassilis' blude;
But her ten-pund lands o' tocher gude
Were a' the charms his lordship lo'ed.
Out ower yon muir, out ower yon moss,
Where gor-cocks throush the heather pass,
There wons auld Colin's bonnie lass,
A lily in a wilderness.
Sae sweetly move her genty limbs,
Like music-notes o' lovers' hymns;
The diamond-dew in her een sae blue,
Where laughing love sae wanton swims.
My lady's dink, my lady's dress'd,
The flower and fancy o' the west;
But the lassie thrtt a man lo'es best,
O, that's the lass to mak' him blest.
